Pakistan issued a strong diplomatic protest to Afghanistan after deadly militant assault on Pakistan Rangers camp in Karachi that left three Rangers personnel dead, as security forces claimed to have killed 29 militants in intelligence-based operations and precision strikes along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
An Afghan diplomat was summoned to Ministry of Foreign Affairs late Saturday night, where officials handed over a formal demarche condemning the attack.
Simultaneously, Pakistan’s Ambassador to Afghanistan, Ubaid-ur-Rehman Nizamani, conveyed an identical protest to Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kabul.
Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said preliminary investigations confirmed the involvement of Afghan nationals in the Karachi attack, including one militant who was captured alive during the operation.
He said the incident underscored Pakistan’s concerns that Afghan territory and Afghan citizens were being exploited by terrorist networks to launch attacks inside Pakistan.
Earlier today, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar announced that Pakistani security forces had eliminated 29 militants during a series of intelligence-led ground operations and precision strikes conducted under Operation Ghazab lil-Haq.
He said the operations were launched in response to recent terrorist attacks targeting civilians in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and the Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) camp in Karachi.
Security forces carried out carefully planned intelligence-based operation in Bajaur district on June 28, targeting militants affiliated with Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and Fitna al-Khawarij.
The operation resulted in the killing of senior militant commander Khan Farosh, alias Zabal, along with three other Jamaat-ul-Ahrar militants, while several others were injured.
Tarar added that the operation was followed by overnight precision strikes between June 28 and 29 against terrorist camps and hideouts located in border regions, describing the action as part of Pakistan’s ongoing campaign against militant networks operating along the frontier.
