At least 30 people, including women and children, were killed in airstrikes by the Pakistani Air Force in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Monday. The incident took place around 2 am when the Pakistani fighter jets dropped eight LS-6 bombs on the Matre Dara village located in the Tirah Valley, causing a huge massacre.
All of those dead were civilians.
Local media reported that many people have also been injured, but their situation remains unclear.
Disturbing pictures and videos of the incident site showed bodies, including those of children, lying around. Rescue teams were engaged in searching for bodies under rubble, raising fears of the death count rising further.
Many counter-terrorism operations have been carried out in the past in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with many civilian deaths being reported from the region. Earlier this year, in June, Amnesty International had said that recurrent drone strikes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa signal an alarming disregard for civilian life in Pakistan.
“Pakistani authorities have failed to take action to protect the lives and property of civilians in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa who continue to pay the price of an escalating number of drone strikes in the province. Last Friday’s drone strike, killing one child, is part of an alarming series of attacks which have escalated since March of this year,” Isabelle Lassee, Deputy Regional Director for South Asia at Amnesty International, said.
According to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s police, the province has reported 605 terror incidents between January and August this year in which at least 138 civilians and 79 Pakistani police personnel were killed. August alone recorded 129 incidents, including the killing of six Pakistan Army and paramilitary Federal Constabulary personnel.
Pak terrorists shifting base
After Operation Sindoor, which targeted and destroyed nine major terrorist hideouts across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), terrorist organisations such as Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) are establishing new bases deep inside Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, near the Afghan frontier. The province’s mountainous terrain, coupled borders with Afghanistan, offers natural concealment. Many areas still contain hideouts built during the anti-Soviet Afghan war of the 1980s and during the American invasion of Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks.
