West News Wire: Two troops who were riding in their car were killed when a roadside bomb detonated in northwest Pakistan, according to the military. The Pakistani Taliban took responsibility for the attack.
Eight troops were killed in the incident on Saturday in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, a banned organization. The disparity’s cause was not immediately apparent.
A hand grenade attack on a police van on Saturday in the Swabi region of the province, which resulted in the death of one police officer and the injury of two others, was also blamed on the TTP.
Since the militant TTP violated a cease-fire agreement with the government in November of last year, attacks on security forces in Pakistan have increased. The administration announced Friday that it will conduct a significant anti-terrorist operation to stem the tide of bloodshed.
The National Security Committee, comprising the prime minister and the military’s top brass, agreed to re-launch the operation this month under a national action plan.
The plan involves military and intelligence operations, death sentences for militants, setting up special military courts for trials, and the deployment of anti-extremist forces in vulnerable areas.
A previous counter-extremist plan was launched in 2014 after a school massacre in Peshawar, where the TTP gunned down over 140 people, including 132 children.
The Pakistani Taliban are a separate group from the Afghan Taliban, although Pakistan’s militant groups are often interlinked with those across the border.
