Pakistan army ‘kills 100 terrorists’
SECURITY CLAMPDOWN AFTER ISLAMIC STATE BOMBING
>> LONDON: Pakistan’s army says it has killed more than 100 “terrorists” in 24 hours of mass security operations following an Islamic State suicide bombing that killed more than 80 people. Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor said raids were still under way across the country, including in the province of Punjab where several militants have died in gun battles in recent days.
Two Pakistani officials say a second key Chaman border crossing into Afghanistan has been closed, halting trade supplies to the neighbouring landlocked country. Earlier, Pakistan closed a border crossing at Torkham, which connects Pakistan to Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province.
A spokesperson for Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff said the military would act for security against “all types of threat”.
“Nation to stay steadfast with full confidence in their security forces,” he added. “We shall not let the hostile agenda succeed whatever it may cost.”
Authorities said a large number of arrests were also made as intelligence agencies work to uncover terror networks liked to the IS, the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
Amnesty International cautioned that while effectively responding to the “grave attack” on Pakistan’s cultural heritage, authorities must adhere to international law and afford terror suspects fair treatment under the judicial process.
Nadia Rahman, the Pakistan campaigner at Amnesty International, said: “The authorities have a responsibility to protect people’s lives but must do so while adhering to international law.”
The Pakistani armed forces said the country’s border with Afghanistan had been closed since Thursday night and all unauthorised entry would be stopped. It has accused its neighbouring country of sheltering terrorists, sending a list of 76 people suspected of planning or supporting attacks in Pakistan, while Afghanistan has made the same allegation.
Afghan diplomats were summoned to the military’s general headquarters in Rawalpindi over the allegations, with Pakistan demanding their counterparts either took “immediate action” against named suspects or hand them over.
Government officials said the crackdown would continue nationwide over the coming days, following a week of bloody terror attacks claimed by both the IS and a faction of the Taliban. The IS claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at the famed Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine in Sehwan, where Sufi Muslims had gathered to perform the dhamaal ritual. At least 83 people were killed and hundreds injured in the blast, which was the deadliest attack in Pakistan for two years.
The IS claimed responsibility for the massacre via its Amaq news agency, saying a “martyr of the IS” detonated his vest at what the group described as a “Shia gathering”. Sufis, who can be both Sunni and Shia, practise a form of Islamic mysticism that is held to be heretical by salafi jihadist groups like the Taliban, IS and Al-Qaeda.
Thursday’s attack came after four days of continuous atrocities claimed by Jamaatul-Ahrar, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban that has also been linked to the IS, and the group was blamed for the shrine massacre by some politicians.
The Taliban faction, which expressed support for the IS before re-joining its parent group in 2015, claimed responsibility for a bombing that killed 13 people in Lahore on Monday and the assassination of security forces and judges in the following days.
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar said they were launching of a new campaign of violence against the government, police, military, the judiciary and secular political parties.
An army offensive launched in 2014 aimed to push militants out of their strongholds near the Afghan border but terrorist groups are now competing with each other after the IS launched the “Khorasan Province” in Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2015.
The wave of violence has raised tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan, with Islamabad summoning an Afghan diplomat to voice concern about militant “sanctuaries” over the border.
Pakistani authorities claim jihadis launch attacks from Afghanistan, where the government and international troops are fighting to oust Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in the continuing war.
Afghanistan and the US have accused Pakistan of harbouring Afghan Taliban leaders.