On Its Urdu-Language Website, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Claims It Executed 59 Attacks, Including A Drone Strike, In November 2022
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP, the Movement of Pakistani Taliban) has released numbers of its attacks against Pakistanis security forces in various regions of Pakistan, especially in the lawless tribal regions along the Pakistan-Afghan border, in November 2022, and of the resulting casualties among Pakistan’s security forces.
According to an Urdu-language report posted on December 1, 2022, on the TTP’s official portal, Umarmedia.Me, the TTP mujahideen carried out a total of 59 attacks, including “direct attacks,” and those using IEDs and sniper rifles, in major cities and towns, most of them in the restive tribal districts which border Afghanistan.
Of the 59 attacks, the report said, 16 were conducted in the North Waziristan tribal district, nine in South Waziristan, six in the Lakki Marwat district, five in the Khyber tribal district, four in Dera Ismail Khan, three each in Bajaur and Mardan districts, two each in Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu, and Tank districts, and one attack each in Mohmand, Pashin, Kuchlak, Nowshera, and Quetta.
In these operations, according to the report, more than 100 members of Pakistani security forces, including the army, police, Frontier Corps (FC), Special Services Group (SSG), and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), were killed and wounded. Those killed and wounded included Pakistani army officers, the report noted.
About the loss of property, the TTP report said that at least five building compounds and more than 10 vehicles were destroyed while the mujahideen seized 25 guns and a vehicle.
In South Waziristan, the TTP mujahideen captured 15 policemen but freed them on the the assurance that they would not serve in the police forcein the future, the report said.
The TTP said that a drone strike in Dera Ismail Khan district, a military operation in Lakki Marwat district, and the order by the TTP “Defense Ministry” to resume attacks against Pakistani security forces, were the significant features of the month.
“Within 48 hours after the [TTP order], the mujahideen carried out seven attacks in which the Quetta Isteshadi [i.e., suicide bombing] attack is worth mentioning,” the report concluded.
The TTP’s claim of a drone strike came a day after the Pakistani security forces reported that three TTP commanders were killed during an operation in Dera Ismail Khan district. While there was no independent confirmation of the drone strike, there were deadly attacks against the Pakistani security forces in November, during which the TTP announced the end of its months-long ceasefire with Pakistan. Citing an attack in the Lakki Marwat district, the TTP said in a statement that the decision to call off the ceasefire had been taken following continuous offensives by Pakistani security forces in the Lakki Marwat district.
On November 16, TTP militants ambushed a patrol in Lakki Marwat district, killing six policemen before escaping while terrorists killed two Pakistan Army soldiers on the night between November 15-16 in fighting near the Afghan border in the Khyber tribal district. Similarly, four people were killed and more than 25 others wounded in a suicide attack targeting a police truck in Quetta, capital of Pakistan’s troubled Baluchistan province on November 30, 2022. These attacks made the November one of the deadliest months of 2022.
Source: Umarmedia, December 1, 2022.