ISLAMABAD: The army attacked a militant hideout near the Afghanistan border Wednesday, prompting a shootout that killed eight of the insurgents and two children and wounded two soldiers, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.
It was unclear whose fire killed the two children during the raid on the outpost in South Waziristan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Manzoor Pashteen, the leader of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), a group advocating for Pashtun rights in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, alleged that the children were killed in a drone attack, a claim which the military refuted.
جنوبی وزیرستان زنگاڑہ کے علاقے میں ایک دُکان پر ڈرون حملہ۔
سراروغہ ہسپتال کو دو کم سن بچے شدید زخموں کی حالت میں لائے گئے جو زخموں کی تاب نہ لاکر شہید ہوگئے۔
بچے دکان کے باہر تھے علاقے میں مواصلاتی نظام نہ ہونے کی وجہ سے معلومات تاحال نہ ہوسکے کہ مزید کتنا جانی نقصان ہوا ہے۔۔1/2— Manzoor Pashteen (@ManzoorPashteen) March 15, 2023
Anchorperson Ameer Abbas confirmed the deaths as a result of “a drone attack”, citing “local sources”. He tweeted: “Deaths are confirmed [by the ISPR] whereas drone attack isn’t.”
Local sources had confirmed that it was drone attack whereas ISPR has just informed that it was an exchange of fire during an operation and two innocent children have died. Deaths are confirmed whereas drone attack isn’t confirmed by the ISPR https://t.co/1ynvub1RH5
— Ameer Abbas (@ameerabbas84) March 15, 2023
The military, in its statement about the violence, did not identify the militant group to which the slain insurgents belonged.
South Waziristan served as a base for Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other militants until a few years ago when the army said it cleared the region of insurgents. But occasional attacks have continued.
The TTP are a separate insurgent group from the Afghan Taliban, although Pakistan’s militant groups are often interlinked with those across the border in Afghanistan.
