The assault was on a college getting used as a navy outpost within the Draban area of Dera Ismail Khan, in Pakistan’s lawless northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa area — lengthy a stronghold for the native model of the Taliban.
“The entire nation pays homage to the sacrifices of the martyrs within the battle in opposition to terrorism,” stated interim Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar on the assault. “Such coward assaults couldn’t demoralize our forces.”
The assault was claimed by Tehrik-e-Jihad, a little-known group analysts say is an offshoot of the Pakistani Taliban or not less than an ally. Social media accounts for the Taliban, which has been battling the Pakistani authorities for greater than a decade, have carried the group’s statements.
“Our suicide bombers attacked a navy compound at 2:30 a.m. and began killing troopers one after the other. A military camp is about up in a college. Greater than 20 troopers have been killed within the assault,” Mohammed Qassim, the group’s spokesman, stated in a press release.
A video launched by the group purportedly reveals the early phases of the assault with what seems to be night-vision photographs of snipers capturing what it describes as Pakistani troopers on the outpost.
Footage from the scene confirmed collapsed buildings and a number of other badly burned our bodies stated to be of the attackers, in addition to their explosive belts. The military assertion stated that “sanitization operations” have been underway to uncover any additional terrorist presence within the space. A curfew has been declared, in the meantime, and the native market and faculty have been closed.
As soon as believed to be largely defeated, the Pakistani Taliban or Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has been chargeable for a resurgence of assaults, particularly prior to now few months, within the wake of their Afghan counterparts’ seizure of energy subsequent door in 2021.
The TTP seeks to oust the present authorities of Pakistan and put in place a conservative Islamic authorized and political system — very similar to there’s at the moment in Afghanistan beneath the Taliban there.
Most of the assaults seem to originate from Afghanistan, although the Afghan Taliban denies it’s offering a haven for the Pakistani militants.
Within the first half of 2023, militant assaults in Pakistan soared by 80 %, based on the Pakistan Institute for Battle and Safety Research, with the Pakistani Taliban assumed to be concerned generally.
Paul Schemm in London and Shaiq Hussain in Islamabad contributed to this report.