Four terrorists killed as forces foil suicide attack on Wana military post

Security forces killed four terrorists in Wana on Thursday after foiling a suicide attack on a military post in Kari Kot, Lower South Waziristan, reports quoted sources as saying.

The attackers had planned to ram an explosives-laden vehicle into the post, but security forces detected the threat in time and shot down the suicide bomber before he could reach his target, according to the sources. Three other terrorists involved in the attack were also gunned down in the operation that followed.

The sources said that the post had been set up to shield the local population and to block Fitna-al-Khawarij, the term used by the state for the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban (TTP), from advancing towards Wana Bazaar. The attempt to destroy it came after repeated failures by the group to achieve its objectives, they added.

Following the failed attack, security forces launched a search and clearance operation in the area.

The two districts of South Waziristan have seen heightened security measures in recent weeks. Last month, the administrations of Upper and Lower South Waziristan had imposed Section 144 across several areas over security concerns linked to militant movement and the deployment of security forces. The law, under the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), allows district authorities to ban gatherings of four or more people for a set period.

The Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) noted in its monthly assessment that the security situation across the country worsened considerably in May after two months of relative calm, with the decline driven largely by rising terrorist activity in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan.

This is not the first such attempt in the region. In early May, a suicide attack on a military post near Azam Warsak Bazaar in South Waziristan was foiled, though one civilian died and 15 others were wounded.

Reports quoted sources that the attackers had used an explosives-laden coach in that assault, which damaged a nearby seminary, a petrol pump, several shops and the roofs of nearby homes.

In November last year, terrorists rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the gate of Cadet College Wana and entered the premises before being cornered in the administrative block, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) had said at the time.