A major and a sepoy of the Pakistan Army were martyred in an improvised explosive device (IED) explosion near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Mohmand tribal district, the military’s media wing said on Friday.
Maj Adeel Shahid and Sepoy Faraz Hussain “fell victim to an IED planted by terrorists from across the border”, the director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) tweeted.
The squad under the martyred officer was supervising fencing work in an area “which carried [a] critical infiltration route”, the ISPR added.
Maj Adeel belonged to Karachi while Sepoy Faraz hailed from Kotli district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
The incident comes less than a week after four soldiers of the Army were martyred and one other was injured in two separate incidents of firing by militants near the Afghan border.
The first of those incidents had occurred in North Waziristan tribal district, where miscreants had opened fire on a routine patrolling party of security forces near the Abba Khel area of Spinwam tehsil, claiming the life of Sepoy Akhtar Hussain, 23. Two miscreants were also killed in the subsequent exchange of fire.
The banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had claimed responsibility for the ambush.
In the second incident in Dir, suspected terrorists had opened fire from across the Pak-Afghan border on Pakistani troops who were busy in border fencing. Three soldiers were martyred.
Following the attacks, the Foreign Office had summoned the Afghan Charge d’ Affairs to lodge a formal protest against the firing incidents.
Pakistan has already fenced an over 900-kilometre-long portion of the Afghan border in an attempt to prevent movement of miscreants and terrorists between the two countries.
Pakistani forces have also conducted a series of operations against militant groups in the tribal districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa over the years. While officials say the area has largely been pacified, small attacks continue to take place.
