RAWALPINDI - Five terrorists were killed as Pakistan Army repulsed multiple cross-border attacks and fire raids on its posts along Pakistan-Afghanistan border area in North Waziristan Agency on Friday, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).
"Terrorists from across the Pak-Afghan border attempted multiple physical and fire raids on Pakistan Army posts in Shawal, North Waziristan Agency," the ISPR said in a statement.
"Security forces valiantly repulsed all attempts to overrun posts and inflicted major damage," the statement said. During the exchange of fire, three Pakistan Army soldiers also embraced martyrdom, the ISPR added.
The martyrs included Havaldar Iftikhar, resident of Sargodha, Sepoy Aftab from Chitral and Sepoy Usman resident from Gujarat.
The cross-border attacks by terrorists came two days after the killing of banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Mulla Fazlullah who was killed in a US drone strike in Afghanistan's Kunar province.
Fazlullah, who led the TTP from 2013, was killed in the US strike on Wednesday, confirmed a spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defence.
The cross-border militant attack comes three days after Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa Kabul visit, during which he held a one-on-one meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and engaged in delegation-level discussions on issues of bilateral interest.
During the meeting, the measures needed to check the rise of the militant Islamic State (IS) group and terrorists benefiting from a porous Pak-Afghan border "to indulge in terrorism, smuggling and drug trafficking" were discussed.
On Thursday, Afghan Interior Minister Wais Ahmad Barmak said the Afghan government is seeking Pakistan’s cooperation in extending a temporary truce that it recently announced with the Taliban, hoping that the move will pave the way for direct talks with the group.
The request was made on Tuesday during the visit of a Pakistani military delegation that coincided with Kabul’s declaration of the truce, Barmak added. “There is hope that with the talks that we had with the Pakistani delegation, the truce will prolong,” he said.
3 soldiers martyred in NWA border clash
