8 soldiers killed as violence surges in Pakistan

Islamist militants overran a military compound in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing six soldiers, as violence flared in the country amid political turmoil.

The military’s media wing ISPR said that three terrorists attempted to enter a military compound in Tank and at least six soldiers were killed in an exchange of fire.

Over a dozen soldiers were reported to have been wounded.

The incident in the town of Tank came hours after two soldiers were killed in a shoot-out in the mountainous region of Waziristan near the Afghan border.

The ISPR said seven terrorists were also killed in these separate attacks.

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a loose network of Pakistan’s home-grown Islamist militants, claimed responsibility for both attacks.

The group had carried out hundreds of attacks since the Taliban took over in Afghanistan.

In November, the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan said it was holding talks with the TTP, and the group announced a month-long ceasefire.

The group ended the ceasefire, accusing the Pakistani government of breaching the agreement.

Earlier this month, more than 60 people were killed in a suicide attack inside a mosque in the north-western city of Peshawar.

The TTP is an umbrella organisation for more than a dozen Islamist militant groups which operate in Pakistan, which have killed around 80,000 people in two decades of violence.

Pakistan’s military has pushed back the TTP from regions on the Afghan border, their former stronghold, into Afghanistan, in a series of offensives since 2014. (dpa/NAN)