Roadside bomb in northwestern Pakistan kills 7 soldiers

Pakistani authorities said Sunday that a bomb blast targeted a military convoy in a militancy-hit northwestern region, killing at least seven soldiers.

The bombing in Lucky Marwat district was followed by a militant gunfire attack, and an army captain was among the slain soldiers, a security official told VOA on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The Pakistani military’s media wing later released a formal statement confirming the deadly ambush, saying an improvised explosive device exploded near one of the convoy vehicles.

“Sanitization of the area is being carried out to eliminate any terrorists present in the area, and perpetrators of this heinous act will be brought to justice,” the military stated.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Lucky Marwat and surrounding districts of the country’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, bordering Afghanistan, have routinely witnessed insurgent bomb attacks and guerrilla raids against military and police forces in recent years.

The violence is claimed by Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, a globally designated terrorist organization, which Pakistani officials say is headquartered in Afghanistan. The group has waged terrorist attacks in the country for years, killing thousands of Pakistani civilians and security forces.

In its mid-year report, issued Saturday, the provincial counterterrorism department confirmed that at least 65 police officers had died and 85 others wounded in TTP-led attacks since the beginning of the year.

It stated that Pakistani security forces had killed nearly 120 “terrorists” and arrested 300 others in military-led counterinsurgency operations during the same period. The military has separately reported the fatalities of dozens of its personnel in bomb attacks and militant ambushes.

Pakistani leaders maintain that terrorism in the country has surged dramatically since the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan nearly three years ago.

Sunday’s insurgent attack came a day after China and Pakistan, through a joint statement, called on Afghanistan’s Taliban to “firmly combat terrorism, including not allowing its territory to be used for terrorist acts.”

Islamabad claims that Taliban leaders in Kabul have sheltered TTP leaders as well as combatants and facilitated them to direct cross-border terrorist attacks, ignoring calls for reining in the anti-Pakistan militant activity.

Taliban authorities deny they are allowing anyone to use Afghanistan to threaten neighboring countries, including Pakistan, although independent critics question those claims.

A United Nations report published earlier this year said the Taliban continued to be “sympathetic” to the TTP and supplied it with weapons and equipment, and some Afghan Taliban members joined the TTP in conducting cross-border raids against Pakistan.