QUETTA: The bodies of 47 militants associated with Fitna al Khawarij killed in a major security operation in Balochistan earlier this month were finally carried into Afghanistan on donkeys after lying exposed for more than two weeks, Pakistani security officials said.
The handover took place on August 25 following a border jirga with Afghan authorities in the Sambaza area, officials sources say. The militants, associated with the Indian proxy the Fitna al-Khawarij group, had been killed between August 7–9 in an operation that foiled their attempt to cross from Pakistan into Afghanistan.
Security officials said most of those killed were Afghan nationals. The majority of their bodies had fallen on the Afghan side of the frontier during the clashes and were left unclaimed for 15 days. During that time, the remains decomposed in the open and were scavenged by wild animals, according to the officials.
“The fact that such a large militant formation was eliminated before it could launch an attack is a major success for our security and intelligence agencies,” an official said.
The incident underscores the persistent cross-border militant threat in the rugged borderlands, where Pakistani forces have been conducting intensified operations against groups accused of staging attacks inside Pakistan from Afghan soil.
