Pakistan: 13 soldiers killed, 29 injured in North Waziristan suicide bombing
Citing security agencies, Pakistani media outlet Mashriq TV stated that a suicide bomber crashed an explosive-laden vehicle into a mine-resistant Improvised Explosive Device (IED) vehicle belonging to the Bomb Disposal Unit amid a curfew imposed due to military movement in the area. The powerful blast resulted in the killing of 13 military personnel and injuring 24 people, including 14 civilians.
There were reports of indiscriminate firing also which caused injuries to 19 civilians, including women and children, in the area.
Reports suggest that the rescue operations were launched immediately following the blast. According to local authorities, the condition of several injured, including women and children, remains critical and the number of casualties might rise significantly.
The Usud al-Harab organisation, a sub-faction of the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group affiliated with Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) Pakistan, has reportedly taken responsibility for the suicide attack.
The incident is termed as the deadliest attack in North Waziristan in recent months, raising serious concerns over the deteriorating security conditions in the area.
The Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistan Army, has not yet commented on the attack.
According to reports, the security forces have cordoned off the area and launched a search operation in the region.
Last month, a car bomb explosion in Gulistan Area of Qila Abdullah, a border area of Pakistan's Balochistan province with Afghanistan, killed at least four people and injured more than 20 others, eight of them critically injured.
The explosion occurred in Jabbar commercial market situated on the Quetta–Chaman National Highway in Gulistan town, adjacent to the fort of Pakistan's Frontier Corps (FC).
As per details, the massive explosion destroyed many shops and vehicles parked in the area and walls of the FC Fort were also damaged. Locals said that many shops in the market also caught fire.
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan had claimed responsibility for the attack with Pakistani analysts suggesting a clear coordination between the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and the TTP, who have intensified their attacks in the recent past.
At the same time, the BLA has also intensified its attacks on security forces in the province.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hindu
40 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Operation Sindoor was akin to playing a game of chess: Army Chief
Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi has said Operation Sindoor was akin to playing a game of chess, as "we did not know" what would be the enemy's next move, and though the "test match stopped on the fourth day", it could have been a protracted conflict. He also emphasised the importance of "narrative management" in such a scenario as "victory is in mind", and said if you ask a Pakistani "whether you lost or won, he would say, my [Army] Chief has become a Field Marshal, we must have won only, that is why he has become a Field Marshal". The Army Chief made the remarks in his address at a function held at IIT-Madras on August 4. The video of his address was shared by the Army over the weekend. Without naming any country, the Army Chief also underlined the threat perception, and said, "next time, it may be much more, and whether that country will do it alone, or supported by some other country, we do not know. But I have a strong hunch, feeling, that country will not be alone. That is where we have to be careful". The Army Chief used the analogies of chess and cricket to emphasise the intricacies of Operation Sindoor, India's decisive military action launched in May on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam attack. Four-day conflict The operation led to a four-day military conflict between India and Pakistan that was halted after an understanding reached between the two sides on May 10. "Operation Sindoor, a new normal, is just the beginning. It is the age of acceleration, transformation we are living in. And if that be the case, then the journey to travel together for upholding peace, even if enforced through strength, synergy and sovereignty, is the call of the day," the Army Chief said. Using the metaphor of the chess game, Gen. Dwivedi said, "In Operation Sindoor what we did, we played chess. So, what does it mean? It means, we did not know what is the next move the enemy is going to take, and what we are going to do. This is something, we call... the grey zone. Grey zone is that we are not going for the conventional operations. But we are doing something, just short of a conventional operation." "Conventional operation means, go with everything, take everything you have. And, if you are able to come back, otherwise, stay there. That is called the conventional approach. Here, the grey zone means any activity that is taking place in all domains, that is something we are talking about and Operation Sindoor taught us that this is the grey zone," he said. "So, we were making the chess moves, and he [enemy] was also making the chess moves. Somewhere we were giving him the checkmate and somewhere we were going in for the kill at the risk of losing our own, but that's the way life is all about," the Army Chief said. Gen. Dwivedi emphasised that the grey zone was ever present and this would remain. "And the next war which we are looking at, it may happen soon, and we have to prepare accordingly, and in this we have to fight this battle, non-kinetic one, together," he said without elaborating. The Army Chief said the military alone would not be fighting it. "If I look at it, India is facing a two-and-a-half front, and if it is facing the land borders, then keeping in with the psyche of people in India today, currency of victory will remain, as land," he said. As far as Operation Sindoor is concerned, the Army Chief said the Indian ground forces were "playing chess" and in this board game, something was visible, while something was not visible. "And, if something that was not visible, maybe other countries were helping to make it visible for the test match stopped on the fourth day, it could have gone to 14 days, 140 days also, 1,400 days also, we don't know, but we have to be prepared for those things," he said. Force orchestration In his address, he also underlined the components if a force orchestration an Army has — force visualisation, force preservation and force application. And Operation Sindoor was a "whole of nation approach" and military was given a "free hand" to decide what was to be done, the general officer said. And, that is the kind of confidence, the political clarity, political direction, for the first time we saw, he said, adding, having no terms of restrictions raised the morale of the force. That is how, it helped Army commanders on ground to "act as per their wisdom". Giving further details of the operation, he said that on April 25, 'we visited the Northern Command, place where we thought, planned and conceptualised and executed seven out of the nine targets which were destroyed killing several terrorists.' On the precision strikes on terror camps, he said it was 'wide and deep where we hit the heartland, first time we hit the heartland, of course, our targets were the nursery and the masters'. 'This has never been done, and even Pakistan was not expecting that the heartland will be hit, and that's what came as a 'shocker' to them. But were we prepared for it, yes, we were prepared for it, to absorb the blow back which will come up,' Gen. Dwivedi said. Use of social media On how the battle of narratives was fought during Operation Sindoor, he said the Indian forces countered Pakistan's strategy in their own way — using social media and other platforms to convey the message to the masses. 'This is how, you can influence the population. It is the domestic population, the adversary's population and the neutral population,' he said. "Strategic messaging was very important, and that's why the first messaging that we did was, justice done. That hit the maximum, I am told, in the world today, the number of hits which we received," Gen. Dwivedi said. He further said today, globally 56 conflicts were going on, involving a total of 92 countries, adding, this strategic continuum of persistence would continue to grow. "As far as we are concerned, we share two borders, and both borders, you can call it live, semi-live, in whichever terminology you can look at, but these potential adversaries have the capabilities to orchestrate a kind of war, which we have to face together or one by one, that we cannot say for sure, as of today, but capability-wise, we have to stand up to both the fronts," the Army Chief said. Now, if that be the case, then "we have to look at five generations of warfare". To boost preparedness, technology had to percolate down to the soldier level, and that was "why I have said, 'eagle on the arm', our 12-lakh population of the Army, everybody should have one drone each, 'eagle on the arm'," he said. 'So, from muddy trenches to the Internet of Things, that is the kind of arena we are looking at,' Gen. Dwivedi said, emphasising the multiple domains of evolving nature of warfare.
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
India shooting down Pakistani aircraft from 300kms dealt huge psychological blow: Military officials
Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh's comment about the Indian Air Force downing a large Pakistani aircraft from a distance of around 300 km reflected its unprecedented air superiority that dealt a "huge" psychological blow to Pakistan during Operation Sindoor, military officials have said, reported PTI. Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal A. P. Singh speaks on Operation Sindoor at the Air Chief Marshal LM Katre lecture, in Bengaluru on Saturday.(ANI) During an event on Saturday, Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh said that the one large Pakistani aircraft destroyed during Operation Sindoor was taken down from a distance of 300 kilometres, the longest-ever recorded surface-to-air kill. He had also confirmed that India shot down five Pakistani fighter jets during Operation Sindoor – India's response to April 22 terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam. Also Read | 'Your turn will come': What PM Modi told Naval chief soon after India-Pak ceasefire "It is significant as there is no publicly available information of a surface-to-air missile bringing down such an asset at a distance of 300 kms or beyond," the senior military official told PTI on condition of anonymity. Another official told PTI that the strike dealt a 'massive psychological, strategic and tactical blow' that will be difficult for Pakistan to overcome. Also Read | 'In Operation Sindoor, we played chess': Army chief on military operation against Pakistan "The kill showed we can reach every corner of Pakistan," he said, while adding that the induction of Russian S-400 air defence missile systems helped India enhance its air dominance. According to PTI, the officials also pointed out how India managed to hit multiple Pakistani installations while jamming its communication systems. India's Operation Sindoor India launched Operation Sindoor in the early hours of May 7 when the military hit nine terror camps inside Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), killing more than 100 terrorists. It was New Delhi's direct military response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror strike that killed 26 people. The operation triggered four days of strikes and counterstrikes with drones, missiles and long-range weapons before the two sides reached an understanding on stopping all military action on May 10.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Gen Dwivedi Takes a Dig at Pak Over Asim Munir's Field Marshal Rank
Chief of Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi took a jibe at Pakistan over its decision to promote General Asim Munir to the rank of Field Marshal after Operation Sindoor. Speaking at IIT-Madras, Dwivedi sarcastically remarked that if you ask a Pakistani whether they lost or won, they would say, 'My chief has become a field marshal, so we must have won.' His comment highlighted Pakistan's narrative despite the Indian forces' decisive success in the operation.#upendradwivedi #indianarmy #operationsindoor #pakistan #asimmunir #fieldmarshal #iitmadras #armychief #defence #nationalsecurity Read More
