Pakistan army launches operations targeting Taliban and separatists

Response comes after six soldiers died in attacks near Afghanistan border

A Pakistani security official stands guard after a bomb blast in Quetta, Pakistan. EPA

Pakistani soldiers were searching for members of the country's branch of the Taliban and Baloch separatists on Monday, after six soldiers died in attacks.

The operation comes five days after security forces freed hostages being held following a prison break. Pakistan is currently fighting against two insurgencies targeting Baloch separatists who are active in an area where a recent roadside bombing killed five soldiers.

Pakistan’s branch of the Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban-Pakistan, has been active since around 2007, often co-operating with its Afghan parent organisation across the border.

Security officers guard a road leading to a counter-terrorism centre in Bannu, a district in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. AP Photo

Pakistan's Taliban commander Latif Mehsud, centre, a close aide to the former chief of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Hakimullah Mehsud, sits on an armed vehicle in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. AFP

Officers stand guard along a road they blocked after Taliban militants seized a police station in Bannu. AFP

Soldiers drive towards North Waziristan from Bannu at the start of an offensive against Pakistani Taliban militants in the restive ethnic Pashtun tribal region. Reuters

People take part in a protest a day after an attack on a school bus in Mingora, in the Swat District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. AFP

Security officials and relatives attend a funeral ceremony of a slain policeman who was killed in an attack claimed by the TTP in the border town of Chaman. AFP

Pakistani security officials check identity cards at a roadside check point in Karachi. EPA

Pakistani security officials in Karachi. EPA

A Pakistani security official in Karachi. EPA

Surrendered Taliban militants at a Pakistani military compound in Swat valley on August 20, 2009. AFP

Pakistani security officials at the site of a bomb blast in Jandol town, 100km from the once Taliban-infested Swat Valley on September 16, 2012. AFP

Armed Pakistani militiamen gather in the former Taliban stronghold area of Puchar in Swat valley on September 14, 2009. AFP

Internally displaced Pakistani civilians pray before breaking their fast during Ramadan in Bannu, northern Pakistan, on July 6, 2014. AFP

Ayesha Abdul Jalil, 16, speaks at a tribute to Malala Yousufzai, who was shot in the head by the Taliban in the Swat valley, at the Embassy of Pakistan in Abu Dhabi. Razan Alzayani / The National

The group has been emboldened following the fall of the former Afghan government in August 2021.

Attacks against foreigners, including Chinese workers and diplomats, have increased in northern Pakistan, alongside an uptick in attacks against security forces.

Last week, 33 people died when an operation was launched to free security officials being held in a counterterrorism centre in Bannu, north-west Pakistan. Two of the dead were commandos involved in the rescue attempt.

Abdul Aziz Uqaili, the top government official in the south-western Balochistan province, said there were of nine attacks in the province on Sunday. No civilians were killed, he tweeted. Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif condemned the violence.

Earlier, the military said five soldiers, including an army captain, were killed when a roadside bomb exploded near a security forces vehicle during a clearance operation in Kahan, a remote area in Balochistan bordering Afghanistan. No militant group has claimed responsibility for the bombing.

The sixth soldier was killed in a shoot-out with the Pakistani Taliban in the Sambaza area of Zhob district, said Azfar Mohesar, a senior police official. A militant was also killed in the shoot-out, he said.

In the provincial capital of Quetta, 12 people were wounded when assailants threw a grenade in a bazaar near a residential area, Mr Mohesar added. Elsewhere in Balochistan, five people were wounded in attacks in the towns of Kalat, Khuzdar and Hub.