Troops raid militant hideout along frontier
North Waziristan clash sees 2 insurgents killed, big cache of arms seized
Troops raided a militant hideout in a former Pakistani Taliban stronghold near the border with Afghanistan yesterday, triggering a shootout that killed two insurgents, the military said.
Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif meanwhile invited opposition leader Imran Khan to forge a response to the recent surge in militan violence, including a mosque bombing that killed 84 people.
Troops yesterday recovered a cache of weapons in a militant hideout in North Waziristan, a district of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The militants killed during the raid had been involved in past attacks on security forces. A military statement provided no further details on the encounter.
Troops routinely carry out such raids to trace and arrest the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.
The Pakistani Taliban are a separate group but are allies of the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan a year ago as US and Nato troops were in the final stages of their pullout. The Taliban takeover in Afghanistan has emboldened the Pakistani Taliban, who have stepped up attacks since November when they ended the ceasefire with the government. The outreach to Imran Khan comes days after a suicide bomber attacked a mosque on the compound of police in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing 84 people. Authorities say the bomber wore a police uniform and the guards at the site assumed he was a police officer — their colleague — and did not search him.
Sharif yesterday said in a televised address that he had invited his predecessor and current opposition leader, Imran Khan, and other officials to a conference on Tuesday to discuss next steps. There was no immediate response from Imran, who was ousted in a no-conference vote in Parliament in April last year.
Sharif said in a televised address that he had invited his predecessor Imran Khan and other officials to a conference to discuss next steps in the fight against militancy.