20 ‘terrorists’ killed as Pakistan forces bomb hideouts near Afghan border

PESHAWAR: Security forces pounded militant hideouts in Afghan areas near the Pakistan border for the second consecutive day, killing at least 20 suspected terrorists, ARY News reported.

The Pakistan forces destroyed at least 12 camps of banned terror outfits established along the Afghan border.

The number of the militants belonging to the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA) killed in the past two days increased to 37 with many of their hideouts destroyed.

According to Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), “Terrorists’ hideouts on Pak-Afghan border have been effectively targeted while security forces have been ordered to be vigilant along the border.

The Afghan media reported about air strikes that Jamaat-ul-Ahrar’s camps were targeted in Afghanistan’s Lalpur district of Nangarhar province and the Sarkano district of eastern Kunar province.

JuA had claimed responsibility of the 13 February blast in Lahore which killed 14 people including two senior police officers.

In other parts of the country, law enforcement agencies and security forces have arrested at least 78 terror suspects after the recent wave of terror which saw country’s three provinces shake with explosions.

Pakistan’s push against extremism was stepped up after the country’s deadliest ever attack, a TTP assault on a school in Peshawar in 2014 which left more than 150 people dead — mostly children.

Security officials said at least 18 terrorists had been killed in Sindh overnight, and 13 more in other parts of the country.