Islamabad, Feb. 8, (dpa/GNA) – Pakistani troops killed 12 Taliban militants in a shootout near the Afghan border, the army said on Wednesday, a week after a deadly attack against police in the same region.
The shootout occurred overnight in the district of Lakki Marwat when troops raided a hideout the militants were allegedly using to plan another attack, a statement by the army said.
There were no casualties on the Pakistani side, the army reported.
The encounter came a week after a Taliban suicide bomber targeted a mosque frequented by police in the north-western city of Peshawar killing at least 84 people. Officials had earlier put the death toll at 101, but later revised it to 84.
The bombing, the deadliest in years, sparked a strong reaction by Pakistani authorities with the provincial police chief vowing on Tuesday “to go after the militants wherever they hide.”
A Pakistani delegation is expected to travel to Kabul to seek support from the Afghan government against the militants who are allegedly operating from their hideouts in Afghanistan.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Pakistani Taliban, who follow the same hardline interpretation of Sunni Islam as their Afghan counterparts but have a different organization, have killed around 80,000 people in decades of violence.
They were pushed back from their stronghold regions on the Afghan border in a series of offensives since 2014, but have been seeking to regroup after the fall of Kabul to the Afghan Taliban.
GNA