.
Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar. PHOTO: APP
ISLAMABAD:
Security forces killed 67 Fitna al-Khawarij terrorists in Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Tuesday, as ‘Operation Ghazab Lil Haq’ continued with full force across the border.
In multiple updates on X, Tarar said that the Afghan Taliban launched coordinated cross-border assaults overnight but were effectively repulsed. He described the attacks as part of a wider pattern of aggression that prompted sustained ground and air responses by Pakistani forces.
According to the minister, in northern Balochistan terrorists carried out attacks at 16 locations across Qilla Saifullah, Noshki and Chaman districts. In addition to these ground assaults, Pakistani troops faced fire raids at 25 separate points.
All attacks were beaten back, with 27 terrorists killed and “scores” more injured in the exchanges, Tarar posted. During the clashes, one soldier of Frontier Corps (FC) Balochistan (North) “embraced martyrdom while defending the country, and five were injured,” he added.
In K-P, Tarar provided a separate operational account, stating that a physical attack was attempted at one location while fire raids were conducted at 12 sites. He said all were repelled without any loss of life on the Pakistani side.
Forty Afghan Taliban were killed in the overnight operations in the province, he added, noting that follow-up clearance and pursuit actions remain under way. The latest figures bring the total number of Afghan Taliban killed in the most recent wave of engagements to 67.
So far, according to the ministry, 464 Afghan Taliban regime operatives have been killed and more than 665 injured since the ‘Operation Ghazab Lil Haq’ was launched last Thursday in response to an attack on Pakistani forces along the Afghan border.
During the operation, the ministry stated, 188 check posts have been destroyed, 31 posts captured, and 192 tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery guns destroyed. Sources said that 56 locations were effectively targeted through aerial operations across Afghanistan.
On Tuesday morning, according to security sources, a full-scale air operation in Jalalabad, the main city of Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, destroyed an ammunition depot and a drone storage facility. The Khogyani base, also in Nangarhar, was destroyed in an air strike.
Pakistani forces also captured a check post in Paktika and hoisted the Pakistani flag, while three additional posts were destroyed. AFP journalists in Kabul reported hearing multiple explosions and gunfire on Tuesday.
Tarar said “security forces are thwarting the enemy’s nefarious designs with full force and the operation will continue until its logical conclusion.” Security sources stated that Afghan Taliban and Fitna al-Khawarij elements were in retreat after the Pakistani ground and air operations.
Amid the intensifying military exchanges, Pakistan’s Information Ministry moved to counter disinformation emanating from Kabul. The ministry’s fact-check wing categorically rejected claims that Afghan forces had conducted air strikes on Pakistani military bases.
Islamabad dismissed the Afghan reports as “completely false” and described them as “futile efforts” to create “fake success stories.” Officials stated that the Afghan Taliban lack the capability to conduct long-range aerial attacks.
(WITH INPUT FROM APP)
