Three FC soldiers martyred in NWA IED attack

MIRANSHAH: Three Frontier Corps (FC) personnel were martyred in an explosion caused by an improvised explosive device (IED) in Ghulam Khan area in North Waziristan Agency on Sunday, official sources said.

The sources said the FC personnel were on a routine patrol when their vehicle was targeted with the IED. Three soldiers identified as Naik Inayatullah Khattak, Sepoy Sifatullah and Sepoy Mohsin Ali Turi were martyred by the explosion. The security forces clamped curfew in the area after the attack and launched a search operation.

It was the second terror attack in North Waziristan in the past 12 days. In the previous attack on December 12, two soldiers, including an officer, were martyred when their vehicle came under fire from militants hiding in the surrounding mountains in Dattakhel area.

The 21-year-old 2nd Lieutenant Abdul Moeed had recently graduated from the Pakistan Military Academy in Kakul, Abbottabad and was on his first posting in North Waziristan when he was martyred. Sepoy Basharat, also 21 years old, embraced martyrdom in the same attack.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra in a statement expressed sadness on the loss of precious lives in the terrorist attack and paid tributes to the sacrifices of the FC personnel. "Those defending the motherland are the real heroes of the nation," he remarked. The governor said the nation was united in the mission to overcome the threat of terrorism.