Seven soldiers martyred in two terrorist incidents

RAWALPINDI: Four soldiers of Frontier Corps (FC) were martyred and their six colleagues injured in an attack by some terrorists from across Afghanistan at Pak-Afghan border in Balochistan on Wednesday.

During fencing of the border in Manzakai Sector, Dist Zhob, the terrorists ambushed the troops, the ISPR said. As a result, four FC soldiers embraced shahadat while six got injured. The troops responded promptly. The injured were shifted to CMH Quetta. The martyred are: Havaldar Noor Zaman, Sepoy Shakeel Abbas, Sepoy Ehsanullah and Naik Sultan.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack and the military provided no further details. In another incident, security forces conducted intelligence based operation in Dosalli, North Waziristan, on reported presence of terrorists and killed two terrorists.

In exchange of fire, Captain Faheem and two soldiers, Sepoy Shafi and Sepoy Naseem, embraced shahadat and two soldiers were injured. Foreign Office condemned the Zhob attack, saying it involved 20 militants. The statement said such attacks are detrimental to ongoing peace and stability efforts along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. It added that Islamabad asked Kabul through diplomatic channels to take measures to avoid such attacks in the future.

Condemning the attack on FC personnel, Minister for Interior Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said that anti-Pakistan elements cannot demoralise us and fencing along Pakistan-Afghanistan border will be completed at all costs.

He also expressed deep grief over the martyrdom of four soldiers. Pakistan started putting up a fence along the Afghan border in 2017 to contain militant movement and to curb smuggling and illegal border crossing. The country says it has completed about 85% of the fence along the 2,611-kilometer (1,622-mile) boundary with Afghanistan.