Pakistani security forces on Friday killed eleven suspected members of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), known as the Pakistani Taliban, including a top commander of the armed group, during an operation in South Waziristan province.
The army said the operation was launched against a hideout used by the group in the town of Wana and added that the dead included a commander identified as Hafizullah and two terrorists who were carrying explosives to carry out a suicide bombing.
He also underlined that «a huge amount of weapons and ammunition» was seized after the operation and said that those killed in the operation «were actively involved in terrorist activities against the security forces and the killing of policemen in the district».
On the other hand, at least five policemen were wounded in two attacks executed in the localities of Lakki Maruat and Dera Ismail Jan, as confirmed by the authorities. In the second attack, the target were officers protecting a polio vaccination team, as reported by the Pakistani newspaper ‘Dawn’.
Vaccination campaigns have faced difficulties in Afghanistan and Pakistan due to conspiracy theories that immunization causes infertility or that medical workers are spies, which has led to numerous attacks against them or the agents who are deployed to reinforce their security.
The operation against the TTP has been launched after the Pakistani Interior Minister, Rana Sanaullah, stressed that there will only be negotiations with the armed group «if it is within the Constitution». He also revealed that the National Security Committee recently decided that there will be a «zero tolerance» policy against terrorist groups.
The Pakistani Taliban announced at the end of November the end of the ceasefire agreed with the Pakistani authorities amid contacts being brokered by the Afghan Taliban after their seizure of power in Afghanistan in August 2021. Islamabad has denounced that the TTP uses Afghan territory for its attacks and has even threatened cross-border operations, something firmly rejected by Kabul.
The TTP, which differs from the Afghan Taliban in organizational matters but follows the same rigorist interpretation of Sunni Islam, brings together more than a dozen Islamist militant groups operating in Pakistan, where they have killed some 70,000 people in two decades of violence.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)