ISLAMABAD: Information and Broadcasting Minister Attaullah Tarar Sunday said that on the night of March 14-15, Pakistan armed forces targeted military installations, including terrorist hideouts of Afghan Taliban and Fitna al-Khwarij.
In these attacks, Pakistan’s forces also destroyed technical support infrastructure and equipment storage facility in Kandahar that was being used by Afghan Taliban and terrorists against Pakistani civilians.
A tunnel that housed technical equipment of Afghan Taliban and Fitna al-Khwarij was also destroyed in Kandahar.
Also, in Chitral sector, a terrorist launch point at Badini post of Afghanistan was destroyed through ground forces. Attached video shows precision engagement by Pakistan on those installations and terrorist camps, which directly/indirectly support terrorism from Afghan soil. No civilian population or infrastructure was targeted as falsely propagated by the Afghan regime officials and media.
Likewise, he said 229 tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery guns have been destroyed and 73 terrorists and terrorist support infrastructure locations across Afghanistan effectively targeted by air.
Sharing the Operation Ghazb Lil-Haq updates and Fitna al-Khwarij/Afghan Taliban losses, he said that 684 Khawarij had so far been killed, another 912 plus injured, 252 posts destroyed, 44 posts captured and destroyed.
The information minister also rejected the Afghan Taliban’s so-called defence ministry claim of a successful strike in Wana. In a statement on his social media account, he clarified that a rudimentary drone was destroyed over South Waziristan through soft kill measures, and no military installation or infrastructure was hit.
“The Taliban regime’s claim reflects their established pattern of pushing propaganda and fabricated claims, such as the recent false assertions about shooting down Pakistan Air Force aircraft and capturing pilots, hence cannot be relied upon,” he noted.
A picture of the debris has also been posted with a message that “truth always prevails over falsehood”.
Also, Attaullah Tarar said the Afghan Taliban regime attacked civilians in Bajaur, martyring four of them while a young child was seriously injured.
In a statement, the minister said that on March 15, Afghan Taliban regime deliberately targeted the civilian population through artillery/mortar fire from across the border in Tabesta Letai, Salarzai area of Bajaur district, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. He noted that four civilians embraced Shahadat while one five-year-old child was seriously injured when a house was hit in the attack.
“The four martyrs -- Sajid, Ayaz, Riaz and Muaz -- are brothers. The locals and civilian population have registered strong condemnation and anger against master terror proxy Afghan Taliban regime,” he added.
The minister contended that the cowardly and heinous deliberate targeting of civilians by the Afghan Taliban regime, in cohorts with terrorist organisation Fitna-al-Khwarij, is not only a grave violation of international law and basic human values but also reflective of their deep frustration and desperation while facing heavy setbacks on multiple fronts by the armed forces of Pakistan through targeted attacks on terrorists and support infrastructures as part of operation Ghazb Lil-Haq.
Meanwhile, the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) and police killed six terrorists in a joint operation conducted in Kohat district of KP on Sunday, District Police Officer (DPO) Shehbaz Elahi said.
The DPO said the operation was conducted in the Lachi area of Kohat, adding that weapons were also recovered from the killed terrorists. He added that a search operation was underway and the area had been cordoned off.
Separately, security forces gunned down five India-backed terrorists during an operation conducted in the Lakki Marwat district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, read a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on Sunday.
The military’s media wing said that the intelligence-based operation (IBO) was conducted on March 15 on the reported presence of terrorists.
“During the conduct of operation, Pakistani troops effectively engaged the Khwarij location and after an intense fire exchange, five Khwarij were sent to hell,” read the communique. The security forces also recovered weapons and ammunition from the killed terrorists, who remained actively involved in numerous terrorist activities in the area.
Following the IBO, security forces began a sanitisation operation to eliminate any other India-sponsored Kharji found in the area, the ISPR release said.
The ISPR vowed that the counterterrorism campaign under Operation Azm-e-Istehkam would continue at full pace to wipe out the menace of foreign-sponsored and supported terrorism from the country.
