At least five people, including four Levies personnel, were martyred when their vehicle came under attack in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s (K-P) Dera Ismail Khan (DI Khan) district.
According to Assistant Commissioner Daraban, the Levies team was ambushed while en route to recover a stolen vehicle in tehsil Daraban. A private driver accompanying the officers was also killed in the attack. The bodies of the slain personnel and the driver were moved to Daraban hospital. Security forces have launched an investigation, but no group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. Pakistan’s security forces have been conducting widespread counterterrorism operations, particularly in KP and Balochistan, which border Afghanistan.
On Saturday, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) announced that 23 terrorists were killed during the conduct of separate operations in Balochistan. As many as 18 Frontier Corps (FC) soldiers also embraced martyrdom during the Mangocher operation – on the night between January 31 and February 1 R11; when terrorists had attempted to establish roadblocks in the area. Reacting to the Balochistan operations, Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Syed Asim Munir vowed terrorist outfits, controlled by foes disguised as friends.
“Those who are acting as terrorist proxies of their foreign masters who have mastered the art of manifesting double standards of hunting with the hound and running with the hare are well known to us,” the army chief said during his visit to the province on Saturday. His remarks come as the year 2024 turned out to be the deadliest for Pakistan’s civil and military security forces in a decade with at least 685 fatalities and 444 terror attacks, according to “CRSS Annual Security Report 2024” issued by the Centre for Security and Strategic Studies.
