Staff Reporter
India has rejected the official statement of the Pakistani Army seeking to blame India for the attack in Waziristan yesterday. In a statement, New Delhi rejected this statement with the contempt it deserves.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Sunday strongly rejected the Pakistan Army’s claim that India was behind the Waziristan suicide bomber attack, which killed 13 soldiers a day earlier.
“We have seen an official statement by the Pakistan Army seeking to blame India for the attack on Waziristan on 28 June. We reject this statement with the contempt it deserves,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement on X.
A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle belonging to the Bomb Disposal Unit in Khaddi village, as per reports. While at least 16 security personnel were killed, 14 civilians, including women and children, were injured, with several said to be in critical condition, according to reports.
“A suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into a military convoy. The blast killed 13 soldiers, injured 10 army personnel and 19 civilians,” a local government official in North Waziristan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province told reporters, according to AFP. The official, later, said that 16 soldiers were killed, raising a previous death toll of 13.
The responsibility of the attack was claimed by Usud al-Harb, a sub-faction of the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group. The Hafiz Gul Bahadur group is a faction aligned with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
This incident is being described as one of the deadliest in North Waziristan in recent months and has raised serious concerns about the security situation in the region.
Pakistan has witnessed a surge in terrorist incidents, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces, following the collapse of the ceasefire agreement between the government and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan in November 2022.
However, Pakistan, once again, attempted to pin the blame on India for the attack and was embarrassingly contradicted.