PTI
Islamabad
Pakistan authorities said that about 331 Afghan Taliban personnel and their allied terrorist groups have been killed so far as the operation against them was going on, it emerged on Saturday.
Pakistan Information Minister Attaullah Tarar providing an early update about the losses of the Afghan Taliban said that so far 331 Taliban personnel have been killed and another 500 injured.
He said Pakistan forces completely destroyed 104 military posts, while they captured another 22 border posts during Operation Ghazab lil-Ha. Tarar said that 163 tanks, armoured vehicles have been destroyed, adding that Pakistan also hit 37 locations in the air strikes. Pakistan launched a massive retaliatory attack code-named Operation Ghazab lil Haq, after the Afghan side simultaneously attacked 53 locations along the more than
2,600 km-long border.
Meanwhile, a senior US official supported Pakistan’s right to defend
against terrorists.
Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Allison Hooker said that she spoke to Pakistan’s foreign secretary to “express condolences for lives lost in the recent conflict between Pakistan and the Taliban”.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for an immediate cessation of hostilities between Afghanistan and Pakistan, his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
“I can tell you that the Secretary-General is deeply concerned by the escalation of violence between Afghanistan and Pakistan and the impact that violence is having on civilian populations,” Dujarric told a daily briefing on Friday (local time).
Addressing a press conference on Friday evening, the army spokesperson, Lt Gen Ahmad Sharif Chaudhry, said that the Afghan Taliban should choose between Pakistan and the
terrorist organisations.
“I want to make one thing clear: the oppressive Afghan Taliban regime has to make a clear choice. The choice is to choose between Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, Baloch Liberation Army, Daesh, Al Qaeda, the terrorists and terrorist organisations and Pakistan,” he said.
The Afghan side rejects the allegations and asks Pakistan to put its own house in order by holding talks with the militants.
Meanwhile, a senior US official supported Pakistan’s right to defend against terrorists.
Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Allison Hooker said that she spoke to Pakistan’s foreign secretary to “express condolences for lives lost in the recent conflict between Pakistan and the Taliban”.
