75 soldiers abducted, 10 killed in Taliban attack in northwest Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province

In what seems to be a major embarrassment for the Pakistani Army, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Thursday claimed to have captured at least 75 Pakistani soldiers and killed ten of them in the country’s Chitral region, according to a News18 report.

According to emerging news reports and updates from the Pakistani military’s media wing, at least 10 soldiers are believed to have been killed among the 75 in the TTP’s custody. The Pakistani establishment has in turn claimed that at least 16 terrorists have been neutralised.

The incident occurred when the Taliban militants attacked two border check-posts in the restive north-western Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province’s Chitral district, the army said. Both the military check-posts are located close to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

The Inter Services Public Relations — the media wing of the army — said that a “large group of terrorists equipped with latest weapons” attacked two military posts located close to the Afghanistan border in Chitral district’s general area of Kalash and captured 75 soldiers posted there.

It has also been learnt that the Pakistani media has been banned from broadcasting these attacks on the Army.

The banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack on the Ostai security check-post and Janjeerat Koh check-post in the Chitral district. The TTP in the past too has attacked the Pakistani establishment as well as military check posts and often engaged in armed conflicts with the Pakistani Army.

The attack at the Ostai security check-post left two soldiers dead while two soldiers were killed and four others injured in the attack on the Janjereet check post, according to people aware of the developments.

A few other soldiers at the two check-posts who were injured have been shifted to the Chitral Scouts Hospital of which one, who is critically wounded, was airlifted to the Combined Military Hospitals in Peshawar.