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Today's Paper | December 23, 2024

Updated 14 Jul, 2017 11:23am

2 militants killed as FC personnel foil bid to attack their camp in Khyber

Security personnel foiled an attempt by two suicide bombers to storm a camp of the Frontier Constabulary (FC) in Khyber Agency on Friday, security sources told DawnNews.

"Terrorists including two suicide bombers from across the border" targeted the Misthara post, 2 kilometres north-west of Jarobi area near the Pak-Afghan border, read an Inter-Services Public Relations press release.

FC personnel engaged with the attackers as they tried to enter the camp, shooting dead one suicide bomber at the gate.

The second attacker blew himself up at the entrance of the camp when security forces opened retaliatory fire, security sources said.

At least two FC personnel also sustained injuries during the episode, and they were shifted to Combined Military Hospital (CMH) Peshawar.

Asad Mansoor, a spokesman for the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar militant group, in a statement claimed responsibility for the attack but he gave no further details, the Associated Press reported.

Security forces cordoned off the area after the incident and started a search operation.

Khyber Agency is among Pakistan’s seven semi-autonomous tribal districts near the Afghan border, rife with homegrown insurgents and foreign militants.

A Fata Research Centre report said earlier this year that the incidence of terrorist attacks in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas increased by 72 per cent in the first quarter of 2017 compared to the last quarter of 2016.

The Pakistan Army had launched Operation Raddul Fasaad in February following a spate of terror attacks in the country, which claimed more than a hundred lives and left hundreds others injured.

The operation seeks to eliminate the "residual/latent threat of terrorism", consolidating the gains made in other military operations, and further ensuring the security of Pakistan's borders.

Hundreds of suspected terrorists have reportedly either been killed or arrested in raids carried out by security personnel since the start of the operation.

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