Overnight, dozens of militants launched a siege on a Hungarian-owned oil and gas exploration site in Pakistan. The attack resulted in the death of six security personnel, according to police and the energy firm involved. The attack took place in the Hangu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, near the Afghan border.
Around 50 fighters, armed with light and heavy weapons, fired mortar shells at the main entrance of the site owned by Budapest-headquartered MOL Group.
At first, a Taliban victory in Afghanistan was considered synonymous with Pakistan’s victory. But disappointed hopes on both sides now have the neighbors at loggerheads.
Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has warned Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers about targeting terrorist hideouts inside the war-torn neighbouring country if the latter were unable to rein in anti-Pakistan militants. In an interview with Voice of America, the defence minister said that in his visit to Afghanistan in late-February, he reminded the Taliban administration to live up to their cross-border security commitments forbidding terrorists from using Afghan soil to plan.