Ayaz Gul
VOA News
December 30, 2023
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s military said Saturday its forces had raided a “terrorist” hideout in a volatile region bordering Afghanistan and killed five militants in the ensuing shootout.
The “intelligence-based” overnight raid in the militancy-hit North Waziristan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province also killed a key militant commander involved in attacks on security forces, the army’s media wing said in a statement.
The army did not name the group, but the anti-state Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, said its hideout was raided and confirmed the killing of four of its members. The group’s statement, sent to journalists, also claimed inflicting heavy casualties on the raiding military forces.
Parts of the northwestern Pakistani province have experienced almost deadly militant attacks, mainly targeting soldiers and police, with the TTP claiming credit or being blamed for most of the violence.
The provincial counterterrorism department said in its annual report Friday that militant attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had killed 185 police officers and wounded 400 other people this year.
The report claimed security forces had also killed 300 militants and captured more than 900 others during the same period.
Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province, bordering Afghanistan, has also seen an uptick in attacks carried out by the TTP and ethnic Baluch insurgents this year, killing hundreds of civilians and security forces.
The Pakistani military has reported the death of nearly 300 officers and soldiers in nationwide militant attacks and counterinsurgency operations in 2023 alone. Earlier this month, militants raided an army base and killed at least 23 soldiers in the deadliest attack in Pakistan’s recent history.
Authorities say TTP, listed as a global terrorist group by the United States, and allied groups are plotting the violence from Afghan sanctuaries.
Islamabad maintains that cross-border terrorism in Pakistan has sharply increased since the Islamist Taliban regained power in Afghanistan two years ago.
“While the interim authorities have reported some success in the fight against Daesh [the Islamic State group], the fact is that a number of terrorist groups are living in Afghanistan, evidently under the protection of the Afghan interim government,” Munir Akram, the Pakistani envoy to the United Nations, told a U.N. Security Council meeting on Afghanistan earlier this month.
Akram reiterated Pakistan’s claims that the TTP was launching more deadly and sophisticated attacks against security forces due to the militant group’s acquisition of modern military weapons from “the considerable stocks left behind in Afghanistan” by U.S. and NATO troops.
Washington has repeatedly denied leaving any weapons in Afghanistan during the American military’s withdrawal from the country in August 2021, dismissing such allegations as “farce.”
Taliban authorities reject charges they are sheltering or allowing militants to stage attacks against Pakistan or any other country from Afghan soil.
Al Jazeera: One year ago, the Taliban told women they couldn’t study medicine. Now, some are doing it in secret. Lima was just weeks away from graduating from a medical school in Kabul when the Taliban banned higher education for women last December, interrupting her studies and that of thousands of other women. Women already qualified as doctors, nurses and other medical workers are permitted to continue in their jobs, but no new women may enter the field or undertake training. 
Khaama: The United Nations Security Council approved a new resolution on Afghanistan on Friday. The resolution was adopted with 13 votes in favour and two abstentions from Russia and China. The resolution calls on the Secretary-General of the United Nations to appoint a special envoy for Afghanistan. According to the resolution, the UN Secretary-General is to appoint a new representative in consultation with the Security Council, Afghan political actors, including Taliban officials, Afghan women, civil society, and countries from the region and the world in a timely manner. 
8am: Yesterday, the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS) published a report, probing the security situation in Pakistan and specifically the number of suicide attacks in the country in 2023… This report and several other reports, including the report dated May 31, 2023, of the same organization, presented that after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, terrorist activities in Pakistan increased drastically. The May report showed a 73% increase in suicide attacks in this country, which continued until the end of 2023, marking a 93% increase in suicide attacks for Pakistan. 
Ariana: Afghanistan defeated the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by 72 runs in the first match of the T20I series in Sharjah on Friday. The sides will meet for their second T20I on Sunday.