Pakistan: 30 killed in Air Force strikes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

In Pakistan 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.

However, other reports says, at least 24 people, including civilians and militants, lost their lives in a deadly explosion at a compound in the Tirah Valley of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan on Monday. The blast was reportedly caused by bomb-making material stored by Pakistani Taliban fighters. According to local police officer Zafar Khan, the compound was being used by two Pakistani Taliban commanders, Aman Gul and Masood Khan, who had turned it into a factory for producing roadside bombs. Khan accused the militants of using civilians as human shields and hiding weapons in mosques in other districts, further complicating efforts to combat militancy in the area. The compound was reportedly part of a larger network of hideouts and bomb-making facilities used by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an armed group allied with the Afghan Taliban.

The attack has drawn strong condemnation from local lawmakers. Abdul Ghani Afridi, a member of the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, accused the Pakistani government of targeting its own citizens in what he described as an "open crime against humanity." The Pakistani military and government are silent on this incident. The official silence is, however, in consonance with Pakistan’s armed forces’ actions on its own citizens, as seen earlier in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or in Balochistan.