Pakistani security forces have killed four suspected members of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) armed group on Tuesday during an attack on a patrol in Mir Ali, located in the North Waziristan region.
The Anti-Terrorism Department in Peshawar said the terrorists opened fire on a van carrying prisoners from Mir ali to Bannu, triggering a gunfight, according to Pakistani daily ‘Dawn’.
Thus, he specified that three of the prisoners were killed by the shots fired by the attackers, while four assailants were killed in the confrontation and six others managed to escape. TTP has not commented on what happened.
The armed group has increased its attacks after breaking the ceasefire with the authorities in November. January has been the deadliest month since 2018, with 134 dead and nearly 45 attacks in various parts of the country.
Islamabad has denounced that TTP uses Afghan territory for its attacks and has even threatened cross-border operations, something firmly rejected from Kabul, where the Afghan Taliban — who mediated the talks process that led to a ceasefire — have assured that they work to guarantee security.
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)
