India Slams Pakistan Army's Remarks on Waziristan Attack, Calls Statement 'Contemptible'

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Sunday strongly rejected accusations issued by the Pakistan Army, which accused India of carrying out the latest suicide bombing in Waziristan.

Reacting to the allegation, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal tweeted, "We have noted an official statement by the Pakistan Army trying to blame India for the 28 June attack on Waziristan. We reject this statement with the contempt it deserves."

The fatal accident took place early Saturday in the Khadi area of North Waziristan in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Thirteen Pakistani soldiers died and 29 individuals were injured, including 19 civilians.

In reports citing security sources, the attack was conducted by a suicide bomber who drove a car loaded with explosives into a mine-protected Bomb Disposal Unit vehicle. The place was under curfew because the military had been conducting operations there at that time.

The blast killed 13 soldiers and injured almost 30 others. The explosion was followed by indiscriminate firing, which wounded a number of civilians, including children and women.

Usud al-Harab, an offshoot of the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group, which is associated with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has claimed the attack.

Pakistan media reported that the bombing followed closely on the heels of an intelligence-based operation in South Waziristan in which two Pakistani troops were martyred and 11 militants eliminated.

One of the most violent incidents to strike North Waziristan in recent history, the attack has further heightened the alarm over the security situation in the area.

In a similar incident last month, a car bomb exploded in Gulistan, a border town between Pakistan and Afghanistan in Balochistan's Qila Abdullah district.

That blast killed four people and injured more than 20 others, eight of whom had life-threatening injuries. The explosion occurred at the Jabbar commercial bazaar along the Quetta-Chaman highway, near the Pakistan Frontier Corps (FC) fort.