Pakistani Taliban claims responsibility for a deadly military checkpoint attack in the northwest

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — The Pakistani Taliban on Saturday claimed responsibility for a deadly military checkpoint attack in the country’s northwest.

The militant group said it killed 35 soldiers and injured 15 others in an early morning raid. It also claimed seizing equipment including a night vision device and weapons. It’s Pakistan Taliban’s latest assault on troops in the restive province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which borders Afghanistan. They made the claims in one of their WhatsApp chat groups.

The army has yet to officially comment on the incident in South Waziristan, but a security official said militants used light and heavy weapons. He said they killed 16 soldiers and injured eight others. The official spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

The Pakistani Taliban have stepped up their offensive against the military and police since November 2022, when they unilaterally ended a ceasefire with the government after the failure of months of talks, hosted by Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers in Kabul.

Also Saturday, Pakistan’s army said a military court had handed down prison sentences to 25 people it alleged were involved in riots last year following the arrest of former premier Imran Khan.

Thousands of demonstrators attacked the military’s headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, stormed an air base in Mianwali in eastern Punjab province and torched a building housing state-run Radio Pakistan in the northwest.

The prison terms ranged from two years to 10 which, the army warned, acted as a “stark reminder” for people to never take the law into their own hands.