No fewer than 16 soldiers have been killed and several others critically wounded after a brazen overnight attack by Pakistani Taliban on an army outpost near the border with Afghanistan.
The attack started after midnight and lasted about two hours as around 30 militants pummelling the mountainous outpost from three sides, one senior intelligence official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
“Sixteen soldiers were martyred and five were critically injured in the assault,” he said. “The militants set fire to the wireless communication equipment, documents, and other items present at the checkpoint.”
An anonymous intelligence official confirmed the number of dead and wounded in the Makeen area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, located 40 kilometres (24 miles) from the Afghan border.
The domestic chapter of the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, claiming it was staged “in retaliation for the martyrdom of our senior commanders.”
The group also claimed to have seized military equipment such as machine guns and a night vision device.
Islamabad accuses Kabul’s government of failing to ferret out militants plotting attacks against Pakistan from across the border.
The Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), share a common philosophy with their Afghan counterparts, who returned to power three years ago.
Kabul’s new leadership has promised to remove foreign extremist groups off Afghan land.
However, a UN Security Council assessment in July estimated that up to 6,500 TTP fighters are based there and stated that “the Taliban do not regard TTP as a terrorist group.”
The report stated that the Afghan Taliban provide “ad hoc support to, and tolerance of, TTP operations, including the supply of weapons and permission for training.”
The increase in attacks has strained Islamabad-Kabul relations. One of the reasons given for Pakistan’s effort to expel hundreds of thousands of unauthorised Afghan migrants last year was security concerns.
