Federal Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Saturday that Pakistan carried out strikes on confirmed camps of the Khawarij Gul Bahadur group in the border areas of North and South Waziristan.
According to details surfaced on Saturday, Tarar said the strikes followed several attempted terrorist attacks inside Pakistan in the Pak–Afghan ceasefire period. He said security forces killed more than 100 Khawarij in timely and effective response operations.
The minister said Gul Bahadur group militants placed an explosive device on a vehicle in North Waziristan. A soldier and several civilians died and many people sustained injuries in that blast. Tarar said accurate, intelligence-based strikes last night killed at least sixty to seventy Khawarij and members of their leadership.
Tarar rejected allegations that operations targeted civilians, calling such claims baseless and an attempt to create sympathy for terrorist groups. He said Pakistan considers negotiation and Afghan control over non-state actors the route to resolve Indian-backed terrorism from Afghan soil, but reserves the right to take every measure to protect its territorial integrity and the lives of its people.
He added that Pakistan will not allow those who carry out terrorism from Afghanistan to live in peace.
