NEW DELHI, July 24: An explosives-laden vehicle was rammed into a security check-post in north-western Pakistan on Thursday night, which killed 15 people, including soldiers, police and government personnel, the army said on Friday.
In retaliation for the attack, 12 extremists were killed, the army said. The extremists drove the explosive-laden vehicle into its outer wall of the checkpoint after they failed to breach the security, the army said.
The incident happened in the Tank district of north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan. “Fifteen brave sons of soil including twelve military, two policemen and a government official ex forest department rendered the ultimate sacrifice and embraced Shahadat (martyrdom),” the army said in a statement.
“The attackers rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into the perimeter wall,” the statement said. “Due to blast impact, infrastructure at check post was seriously damaged.”
Local Taliban militants, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying four suicide bombers took part in it, according to a statement. Militancy has risen sharply in northwest Pakistan in recent months.
Pakistan has previously blamed the increase in attacks in KP and the southern border province of Balochistan on extremism emanating from Afghanistan, where the Taliban government denies Afghan involvement.
The accusations have sparked a bitter rift and armed conflict between the neighboring countries, and Pakistan has carried out deadly airstrikes it says target militants on Afghan soil. The Taliban government and the United Nations said dozens of civilians were killed in the latest Pakistani strikes on eastern Afghanistan in June.
The Taliban have been waging a war against the Pakistani state since 2007 in an attempt to overthrow the government and replace it with their own brand of strict Islamic governance. Islamabad says the militants use safe havens in Afghanistan to train and plan attacks in Pakistan, a charge Kabul denies. Afghanistan says the militancy is Pakistan’s domestic problem.
(Rohit Kumar)
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