Bajaur incursion: 3 FC soldiers injured in cross-border attack

KHAR:

Three paramilitary troops were wounded in an attack on a border post by Afghanistan-based Taliban militants in Bajaur Agency Monday morning.

The Pakistani Taliban militants, who have found a safe haven in the northwestern Afghan province of Kunar, crossed over into the border area of Ghakhi and attacked a Frontier Corps (FC) post, according to an official of the political administration based in the agency headquarters Khar.

The FC soldiers manning the post retaliated and in the ensuing gunfight three paramilitary soldiers were wounded, the official said. It wasn’t immediately clear if the attackers also suffered any casualties.

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) central spokesman Shahidullah Shahid claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone call to journalists from an undisclosed location. Shahid, along with five key commanders of the TTP, recently pledged allegiance to the ISIS, the extremist group which has established a self-styled Islamic caliphate on vast swathes of land it has captured in Syria and Iraq.

Bajaur Agency shares a border with Kunar province of Afghanistan which TTP militants use as a springboard for launching frequent cross-border attacks on Pakistani security forces and the civilian population in Bajaur Agency and Dir districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Pakistan has repeatedly asked Afghan authorities to act against the militants sheltering on their side of  the border.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 21^st, 2014.