Pakistani forces foil militant attack on army-run college

Dera Ismail Khan: Pakistani security forces foiled an attempt by militants to take cadets hostage at an army-run college overnight, when a suicide car bomber and five other Pakistani Taliban targeted the facility in a northwestern province, police said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, a car exploded outside a sprawling district court in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, wounding eight people, police said. The cause of the blast was not immediately known.

The court area is typically crowded with hundreds of visitors attending hearings. Police said they were investigating and refused to comment on local media reports that a gas cylinder inside the car had exploded.

The overnight attack on the army-run college began on Monday evening, when a bomber tried to storm the cadet college in Wana, a city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border. The area had until recent years served as a base for the Pakistani Taliban, Al Qaida and other foreign militants.

According to Alamgir Mahsud, the local police chief, two of the militants were quickly killed by troops while three militants managed to enter the compound before being cornered in an administrative block. The army’s commandoes were among the forces conducting a clearance operation and an intermittent exchange of fire went on into Tuesday, Mahsud said.

The administrative block is away from the building housing hundreds of cadets and other staff.

“All cadets, instructors and staff remained safe,” Mahsud said, adding that troops deployed at the college prevented the assailants from reaching the main building of the college.

He said dozens of houses near the college were badly damaged by the impact of the massive suicide bombing, which wounded at least 16 civilians. Some troops were also wounded in the assault and ensuing shootout, he said, adding further details will be shared when the operation is over.

There were no updates from the military about the ongoing operation.

However, the military said in a statement Monday that the attack was carried out by “Khawarij,” a term used by the government for members of the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. The group is designated a terrorist organization by both the United States and the United Nations.

The TTP, which is separate from but allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban, denied involvement in the college attack. The group has been emboldened since the Taliban seized power in Kabul in 2021, and many of its leaders and fighters are believed to have taken refuge in Afghanistan.

Pakistan has seen a surge in militant attacks in recent years. The deadliest assault on a school occurred in 2014 when Taliban gunmen killed 154 people, mostly children, at an army-run school in Peshawar. According to the military, the assailants wanted to repeat Monday what happened during the 2014 attack in Peshawar.

Tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan have risen in recent months. Kabul blamed Islamabad for drone strikes on Oct. 9 that killed several people in the Afghan capital and vowed retaliation. The ensuing cross-border fighting killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and militants before Qatar brokered a ceasefire on Oct. 19, which remains in place.

Since then, two rounds of peace talks have been held in Istanbul - the latest on Thursday - but ended without agreement after Kabul refused to provide a written assurance that the TTP and other militant groups would not use Afghan territory against Pakistan. An earlier, brief ceasefire between Pakistan and the TTP, brokered by Kabul in 2022, collapsed later after the group accused Islamabad of violating it.