The Pakistani Taliban on Saturday claimed an overnight attack on an army post near the border with Afghanistan, which intelligence officials said killed 16 soldiers and seriously injured five others.
A senior intelligence official told AFP on condition of anonymity that the siege began after midnight and lasted about two hours as about 30 militants attacked the mountain outpost from three sides.
“Sixteen soldiers were martyred and five were seriously injured in the attack,” he said. “The terrorists set fire to wireless communication equipment, documents and other items present at the checkpoint.”
A second intelligence official also anonymously confirmed the number of dead and injured in the attack in Makin area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, 40 km from the Afghan border.
The domestic branch of the Taliban in Pakistan claimed the attack in a statement, saying it was carried out “in retaliation for the martyrdom of our senior commanders”.
The group claimed to have seized a large cache of military equipment, including machine guns and a night vision device.
Pakistan Army has not yet issued any statement on this incident.
Pakistan is grappling with a resurgence of terrorist violence in its western border areas following the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan in 2021.
Casualties last year reached a six-year high, with more than 1,500 civilians, security forces and militants killed, according to the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies.
Saturday’s attack was “the deadliest attack in the region this year,” according to the first intelligence official.
Islamabad has accused Kabul’s rulers of failing to root out terrorists attacking Pakistan from across the border.
The Pakistani Taliban – known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP – shares a similar ideology with its Afghan counterparts who came back to power three years ago.
Kabul’s new rulers have promised to drive out foreign terrorist groups from Afghan soil.
But a UN Security Council report in July estimated that 6,500 TTP fighters remained there – and said “the Taliban does not regard the TTP as a terrorist group.”
The report said the Afghan Taliban “shows ad hoc support and tolerance of TTP operations, including allowing weapons supplies and training.”
The increase in attacks has soured Islamabad-Kabul relations. Security was cited as a reason behind Pakistan’s campaign to evict millions of undocumented Afghan migrants last year.
