Pakistan: 11 people killed in military drone strikes on Taliban hideouts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

At least 11 people were killed Saturday in northern Pakistan when the army launched a series of drone strikes against the Taliban — losses which the provincial government called “deeply regrettable”.

Three strikes took place late Friday in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, targeting “Pakistani Taliban hideouts” in the area bordering Afghanistan, a senior police officer said on condition of anonymity. Violence had erupted there in recent months.

“It was only this morning that we learned that two women and three children were among the victims,” the officer said.

“In protest, local residents placed the bodies of the victims on the road”, saying that they were “innocent civilians” killed in the strikes, he added.

Provincial government spokesman Muhammad Ali Saif confirmed late in the day that an “anti-terror operation was conducted in the mountainous area of Katlang, Mardan district, based on confirmed intelligence regarding the presence of terrorists”.

“Reports indicate that the location was being used as a hideout and transit point for terrorist elements,” he said in a statement.

“Subsequent information revealed that some unarmed civilians were present in the vicinity of the operation site. The loss of innocent lives, including women and children, is deeply regrettable.”

He said the safety of civilians is sometimes compromised by “the terrorists’ strategy of hiding among civilian populations” and the “urgent nature” of counterterrorism operations.

Another police source said that “an investigation is under way to establish whether Taliban fighters were indeed present at the sites at the time of the attack”.

“It is too early to say whether the places affected were civilian areas or whether they were sheltering Taliban,” he added.

‘Spring campaign’

In mid-March, the Pakistani Taliban — known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — announced a “spring campaign” against security forces, threatening “ambushes, targeted attacks, suicide attacks and strikes”.

The TTP has since claimed responsibility for around 100 attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

In the same province, “armed Taliban” fighters hiding in a house shot and killed seven soldiers who were carrying out an operation against them, a police source said Saturday.

During the hours-long shootout, the army deployed helicopter gunships, killing eight Taliban, while six other soldiers were wounded, according to the source.

Since January 1, more than 190 people, mostly members of the security forces, have been killed in violence carried out by armed groups fighting against the government both in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and in Balochistan province to the south, according to an AFP count.

A blast from a bomb planted by separatists on a motorbike killed a soldier and a civilian in Balochistan, police officer Mohsin Ali told AFP.

The area was the scene of a spectacular attack last month when militants held hundreds of train passengers hostage and killed dozens of off-duty soldiers.

Attacks increasing

Attacks are reported every day in Pakistan’s northern and western regions bordering Afghanistan, where the army regularly says it is killing “terrorists” during sweep operations without, however, curbing the violence.

Attacks have increased in Pakistan in particular since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021.

Islamabad accuses the Taliban government in Kabul of failing to eliminate militants who take refuge on Afghan soil to prepare attacks against Pakistan.

The Taliban government denies these accusations and in return accuses Pakistan of harbouring “terrorist” cells on its soil, pointing the finger in particular at the regional branch of the Islamic State group IS-K.

“Pakistan expects the Afghan government to assume its responsibilities”, the army said in early March, reserving “the right to take the necessary measures to respond to these threats coming from across the border”.

Last year was the deadliest year in almost a decade in Pakistan, with more than 1,600 people killed in attacks — nearly half of them security forces personnel — according to the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies.