Pakistan summoned a Taliban diplomat after a deadly car bombing in the northwestern district of Bajaur killed 11 Pakistani soldiers, the Foreign Ministry said on Thursday, escalating already tense tensions between Islamabad and the Taliban.
The attack, which took place on Monday in the Malangi area of Bajaur in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, targeted a Pakistani military and administrative post. Pakistan’s military said a vehicle packed with explosives rammed the perimeter wall of the checkpoint, causing a collapse that killed 11 service members.
In a statement, Tahir Hussain Andrabi, a spokesman for Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry, said the Taliban deputy head of mission at the Afghanistan’s embassy in Islamabad had been summoned in connection with the attack.
Pakistan “condemns in the strongest possible terms the heinous suicide vehicle-borne terrorist attack and subsequent assault on a military and administrative post in Bajaur, carried out by Fitna al-Khawarij or Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan,” Andrabi said, using the government’s term for the Pakistani Taliban.
He added that Islamabad had conveyed its “serious concern” that TTP, whose leadership Pakistan says is based in Afghanistan, continues to operate “with impunity” from Afghan territory.
The ministry said Pakistan had repeatedly received assurances from what it referred to as the “Taliban regime in Afghanistan,” but had seen no “visible or concrete action” against militant groups.
Andrabi said Pakistan had urged the Taliban to take “immediate, concrete and verifiable action” against all militant groups operating from Afghanistan’s territory, including their leadership. He added that Pakistan had made clear it reserved the right to respond and to target individuals affiliated with the TTP “wherever they may be,” in order to protect its soldiers, civilians and borders.
The Taliban have not publicly commented on the summoning of their diplomat.
Pakistan has long accused the Taliban of harboring TTP fighters, an allegation the Taliban deny. But a UN monitoring group has reported that TTP has around 6,000 fighters in Afghanistan.
TTP has not publicly claimed responsibility for the Bajaur attack.
