Four soldiers of the Pakistan Army were killed and one other sustained injury in two separate incidents of firing by militants in tribal areas near the western Afghan border, the military's media wing said on September 14, reports Dawn. In the first incident, unidentified militants opened fired on a routine patrolling party of Security Forces (SFs) near Abba Khel area of Spin Wam tehsil (revenue unit) in North Waziristan District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) on September 13, resulting in the killing of Sepoy Akhtar Hussain (23), a resident of District Baltistan, according to a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR). "In exchange of fire, two miscreants [were] also killed," the ISPR said.
In the other incident, suspected militants opened fire from across the Pak-Afghan border on Pakistan Army troops in Dir who were busy in border fencing, reports Dawn. "3 soldiers embraced shahadat (martyrdom) while 1 got injured" in the incident, the military's media wing said on September 14. The personnel killed in the second incident include Lance Naik Said Amin Afridi (28), a resident of District Khyber; Lance Naik Muhammad Shoaib Swati (31), resident of District Manshera; and Sepoy Kashif Ali (22), a resident of District Nowshera. "The unprovoked firing resulted in martyrdom of three Pakistani soldiers while seriously injuring one of them," the Foreign Office (FO) statement read. It added, "While strongly condemning the attack, it was underscored that the Afghan side was responsible for securing the areas on its side of the border, as mutually agreed on several occasions."