Pakistan Army concerned over Afghan militant `safe havens`, threatens response

Two days after 12 of its soldiers were killed in two attacks, Pakistan’s army declared on Friday that it was gravely concerned that militants had discovered safe havens in neighbouring Afghanistan and promised to take “effective action.”

The military reported that three more troops were killed in a firefight in the area on Wednesday after nine soldiers were murdered after Islamist terrorists seized an army post in Pakistan’s southern Balochistan province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan.

The army has “serious concerns on the safe havens and liberty of action available to TTP in Afghanistan,” it said, referring to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militant umbrella group.

“Such attacks are intolerable and would elicit effective response from the security forces of Pakistan,” it said, without spelling out who it might target with its response.

“The involvement of Afghan nationals in acts of terrorism in Pakistan is another important concern that needs to be addressed,” it added.

Previous allegations that Kabul permits extremist organisations to attack Pakistan from its territory have been refuted.

A decades-old ethnic Baloch rebellion has caused problems in the mineral-rich area of Balochistan.

Balochistan has also seen activity from Islamist terrorists who want to destroy the Pakistani government and impose their own brand of harsh Islamic law on the country’s 220 million Muslim citizens.

Since violating a ceasefire agreement with the government in late 2022, they have intensified their attacks, including the bombing of a mosque in the northwest city of Peshawar earlier this year that left more than 100 people dead.

(With agency inputs)