Three security men and two civilians were martyred in firing from the Afghan side of the border and IED (improvised explosive device) attacks in different areas of the merged districts on Sunday.
Three terrorists were killed in retaliatory fire by security forces, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.
Terrorists from inside Afghanistan opened fire on a military post in Bajaur district. Troops responded in a befitting manner. According to intelligence reports, two to three terrorists were killed and three to four terrorists got injured.
In the exchange of fire, Sepoy Jamal and Sepoy Ayaz embraced martyrdom. Jamal, 28, was a resident of Mardan while 21-year-old Ayaz hailed from Chitral.
Officials said that terrorists opened fire on a check-post from the Afghan side in Bajaur.Islamabad strongly condemns the use of Afghan soil by terrorists for activities against Pakistan and expects that existing and future set-up in Afghanistan will not allow such activities, the ISPR said.
Security forces and civilians also came under attacks in North Waziristan and South Waziristan districts.
Intelligence sources said that terrorists targeted a bomb disposal squad with an IED near the Sherwangi Kandy post in Ladha tehsil of South Waziristan. Police said one sepoy embraced martyrdom.
Militants also attacked security forces and civilians with IEDs in the adjacent North Waziristan district. In the first attack, an IED went off near a security post in the Razmak subdivision in which one civilian was martyred while two others, including a soldier, suffered injuries.
Security forces cordoned off the area and conducted a search operation.
In the other incident, a vehicle supplying ration to security forces was hit with an IED in the Dirdoni area near Miramshah, causing injuries to two people. The wounded were taken to hospital where one of them, identified as Waliullah, was pronounced dead.
The Taliban’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada — who has never made a public appearance and whose whereabouts have largely remained unknown — is in Afghanistan, the hardline Islamist group confirmed on Sunday.
“He is present in Kandahar. He has been living there from the very beginning,” said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid. “He will soon appear in public,” added deputy spokesman Bilal Karimi.
The so-called commander of the faithful, Akhundzada has shepherded the Taliban as its chief since 2016 when snatched from relative obscurity to oversee a movement in crisis.
Little is still known about Akhundzada’s day-to-day role, with his public profile largely limited to the release of annual messages during Islamic holidays.
He has yet to issue any kind of statement since the Taliban swept to power and took control of Afghanistan in mid-August. The Taliban have a long history of keeping their top leader in the shadows.
The group’s enigmatic founder Mullah Mohammad Omar was notorious for his hermit ways and rarely travelled to Kabul when the group was in power in the 1990s.
Instead, Omar stayed largely out of sight in his compound in Kandahar, reluctant even to meet visiting delegations.
Kandahar was the birthplace of the militant movement and the epicentre of the Taliban’s iron-fisted Islamist government in the 1990s.