Pakistan’s armed forces have destroyed several Afghan Taliban checkposts in a retaliatory operation along the border, after an attack on civilians in South Waziristan left one person dead and five others injured, security sources said.
The incident took place in the Angoor Adda area of Lower South Waziristan, where Afghan Taliban forces opened fire on the local bazaar and nearby homes, according to the district’s deputy commissioner. A mortar shell struck the area, killing one civilian and wounding five members of the same family. Several shops were also damaged in the firing.
Pakistani troops stationed along the frontier responded forcefully, security sources said, destroying a number of checkposts across the border. The sources said the response was still under way and that troops remained ready to answer any further aggression from across the frontier.
Officials described the initial firing as unprovoked and said the Pakistani response was aimed at the positions from which the attack had come. No statement from the Afghan Taliban authorities on this latest exchange was reported in the initial accounts.
Angoor Adda has seen repeated cross-border violence. In late April, mortar fire from across the border injured civilians and damaged houses in South Waziristan, prompting Pakistani forces to strike Taliban positions, according to security sources and local officials cited in earlier reporting.
The latest clash follows renewed hostilities in February, when Pakistan launched Operation Ghazab lil-Haq. Islamabad has repeatedly urged Kabul to stop militant groups from using Afghan soil to launch attacks into Pakistan, a charge the Afghan Taliban authorities have denied.
