Three soldiers martyred in NWA cross-border attack

RAWALPINDI: Three soldiers embraced martyrdom in an exchange of fire with terrorists along the Pak-Afghan border in North Waziristan’s Shawal area on Friday.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement that terrorists from across the Pak-Afghan border “attempted multiple physical and fire raids on Pakistan Army posts in Shawal”. At least five attackers were reportedly killed in retaliatory fire.

“The security forces valiantly repulsed all attempts to overrun posts and inflict major damage,” the ISPR said.

The ISPR identified the martyred soldiers as Havaldar Iftikhar, a resident of Sargodha, Sepoy Aftab from Chitral, and Sepoy Usman, a resident of Gujrat.

The cross-border attack comes on the heels of the killing of Mullah Fazlullah, the notorious chief of the proscribed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), in a US drone strike in Kunar province on Wednesday. The Afghan Defence Ministry and a US military official have confirmed the deaths of Fazlullah and four other senior TTP commanders.

The attack also comes after Pakistan Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa’s visit to Kabul three days ago during which he held a one-on-one meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and engaged in delegation-level discussions on issues of bilateral interest.

During the meeting, the measures needed to check the rise of the militant Islamic State (IS) group and terrorists benefiting from a porous Pak-Afghan border “to indulge in terrorism, smuggling and drug trafficking” were discussed.