At least two people died and 22 other sustained injuries, in a suicide bombing against a convoy of vehicles coming from Tank in the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), on Thursday, police and witnesses said.
Police said that suicide car bombing hit the convoy near a petrol pump in the area of Hathala Police Station. They added that the vehicles were coming to Dera Ismail Khan from Tank, when they were targeted. The injured had been taken to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH), they said.
Police and other security forces personnel reached the spot and blocked the Dera-Waziristan road for all sorts of traffic. The Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) also started its initial investigation. So far, the police or the BDS were tight-lipped about the explosives used in the attack.
Meanwhile, security forces killed a terrorists and injured two others during an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in the Panjgur district of Balochistan, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said. The dead militant was identified as Chakar Liaquat, the media wing of the military added.
During the operation, troops effectively engaged the terrorists, resultantly terrorist Chakar Liaquat was killed, while two terrorists were injured, the ISPR said. Weapons and ammunition were also recovered from their possession, it added.
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The ISPR said that Chakar was "actively involved in numerous terrorist activities". A sanitisation operation was being carried out to eliminate any other terrorists in the area, the ISPR said, adding: "Security forces of Pakistan are determined to wipe out the menace of terrorism from the country."
The IBO was carried out a day after two soldiers embraced martyrdom as the Pakistan Army successfully eliminated eight terrorists, during its swift response to an attempted attack on the Gwadar Port Authority Colony.
According to an Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) statement, a band of eight terrorists made an attempt to infiltrate Port Authority Colony in Gwadar. A swift action by security forces thwarted their efforts, the statement added.
The funeral for the martyred soldiers, Sepoy Bahar Khan, 35, a resident of Dera Ghazi Khan Khan district, and Sepoy Imran Ali, 28, a resident of Khairpur district, were offered in Gwadar on Thursday, the ISPR said in a separate statement.
Representatives of the Army, Navy, Balochistan Police and civil society participated in the funeral prayers. The bodies of the martyrs were sent to their native areas, where they were laid to rest with full military honours.
The ISPR said that the armed forces were determined to thwart terrorist attempts to sabotage peace in Balochistan. “The war against terrorism will continue till the end of the scourge of terrorism from the motherland. The sacrifices of our brave sons strengthen our resolve to fight against terrorism.”
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