‘Daesh-linked’ gunmen shoot Pakistani intelligence officer
Gunmen have killed a Pakistani intelligence officer in the in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in an attack claimed by the Takfiri Daesh terror group.
Akbar Ali, an intelligence sub-inspector, who waiting at a bus stop near his home in Charsadda district, was shot dead by two gunmen on Monday, Suhail Khalid, district police chief told AFP.
Ali was hit by four bullets from the front and died on the spot, he said, adding that the armed men, who fled the scene, used a 9-milimeter pistol.
The attack was later claimed by Daesh terrorist group in a short statement posted on Amaq, its affiliated news agency.
Last month, Pakistan’s military admitted for the first time that the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group had a presence in the militancy-riddled country, but said it had detained hundreds of its militants and prevented them from carrying out major attacks.
Army spokesman Lieutenant General Asim Bajwat said that Pakistani forces had foiled planned attacks by Daesh terrorists on embassies and an airport in the capital, Islamabad.
He, however, denied the terror group was behind an August attack on a hospital that killed 73, as it had claimed.
In recent years, the Daesh militant group has been making inroads into Afghanistan and Pakistan. The group is also using a sophisticated social media campaign to woo local Taliban and other militants.
Residents in Pakistan’s troubled northwestern tribal regions have reported the circulation of leaflets backing Daesh terrorists in the region. Slogans in support of the group have also been seen on the walls in a number of towns.
Last year, the Pakistani army chief General Raheel Sharif acknowledged that some groups in the country were attempting to prepare the ground for Daesh activities.
An attack on a bus in Karachi in May 2015 that killed 46 people was the first major incident officially claimed by Daesh in Pakistan.
Pakistan has been battling al-Qaeda-linked terrorists and pro-Taliban militants for years, especially after the US-led invasion in neighboring Afghanistan in 2001 and the subsequent spillover of militancy into the region.
In June 2014, the Pakistani army intensified its anti-militancy efforts by deploying some 30,000 troops near the border with Afghanistan to wipe out militant bases in the tribal area and bring an end to the bloody militancy.
Pakistan dismisses US official’s allegations about missile program
Iran’s Pezeshkian, Egypt’s Sisi hope for restoration of bilateral ties
Over dozen killed in clashes amid violence targeting Pakistan's Shias
D-8’s role in Iran’s economy after Cairo summit
China slams US as ‘war-addicted’ threat to global security
China ‘firmly opposes’ US military aid to Taiwan
VIDEO | Press TV's News Headlines
President Yoon Suk Yeol to be removed from office
At least 19 Gazans killed by Israeli airstrikes since dawn: Medics
Leader: Iran neither has nor needs proxy forces
US fighter aircraft shot down ‘in friendly fire’ amid aggression on Yemen
PressTV NEWSLETTER
now
This makes it easy to access the Press TV website
