2 killed, 5 injured as Taliban target security personnel in Pakistan

At least two people were killed and five others were injured in three separate attacks carried out by Taliban militants in Pakistan on Saturday, local media and officials said.

The first incident happened in the capital city Quetta of the country's southwest Balochistan province where the militants attacked a checkpost of paramilitary troops Frontier Corps (FC).

One FC man was killed in the attack while four others including a passerby were injured.

The injured people have been shifted to a nearby hospital for medical aid where one of the soldiers is said to be in critical condition.

Officials said that the insurgents fixed a bomb at the checkpost in the wee hours of the morning and detonated it with a remote-controlled device when the four FC personnel were performing their duties there.

In a separate attack in the capital city Peshawar of the country's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a senior police officer was injured when insurgents opened fire at his vehicle.

The officer, who was on his way to the police station, sustained multiple injuries in the attack by two assailants riding a motorbike.

The injured police officer was shifted to Lady Reading Hospital where his condition is stable after undergoing emergency medical treatment, said hospital sources.

In the third attack, a retired army officer was shot dead in the capital city Karachi of the country's south Sindh province.

Police said that the insurgents riding a motorbike killed the ex-officer and fled the scene.

Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (Pakistan Taliban) claimed responsibility for all the three attacks on the security personnel. Enditem

A total of 488 soldiers and 3,400 militants have been killed in the ongoing armed offensive by Pakistan army in the country's northwest tribal area of North Waziristan over the last 18 months, an official with the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military's media wing, said Saturday.

Major General ISPR, Asim Bajwa, said that at least 1914 security personnel including officials and men from Pakistani army and paramilitary troops were also injured in the operation.

He said that the military has also destroyed 837 hideouts of the militants from where they were carrying out terrorist activities.

Aiming at the eradication of local and foreign militants from the volatile North Waziristan agency, the armed offensive called "Zarb-e-Azb" (an Urdu name for the Islamic prophet's sword) was launched on June 15 last year.

Bajwa said that during the last eighteen months a phenomenal success has been achieved by the army who is currently busy in clearing the last pockets close to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

He maintained that that terrorists' backbone has been broken in the operation and their main infrastructure has been dismantled.

He said that the nexus of the Taliban militants with sleeper cells has been largely disrupted while intelligence-based-operations (IBOs) are going on in the country to burst the remaining.

"During last 18 months, over 13,200 IBOs were carried out across the country in which 183 hardcore terrorists (were) killed and 21,193 arrested,"he added.

The DG ISPR said that an overall improvement in law and order situation and security across the country is the fruit of the operation.

Festivities, national events which were being repeatedly canceled over the last few years due to poor law and order situation and threats by Taliban were celebrated in 2014 and 2015 as the successful operation has weekend the basis of Taliban.

"Support of the entire nation for its valiant armed forces and resolve expressed against terrorism post December 16 Army Public School attack (in Peshawar) had been the bedrock of Operation Zarb-e-Azb," he said. Enditem