Major among two martyred in blast near Afghan border.

ISLAMABAD: An officer of Pakistan Army and a sepoy embraced martyrdom on Friday as an improvised explosive device (IED) planted by terrorists on Pakistan-Afghan border went off during the process of erecting fence.

According to a tweet by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Major General Asif Ghafoor, Major Adeel Shahid and Sepoy Faraz Hussain embraced martyrdom on Pakistan-Afghan border in district Mohmand.

Squad under the martyred officer was supervising fencing work in an area which carried a critical infiltration route. The martyred personnel fell victim to an IED planted by terrorists from across the border.

Maj Adeel belonged to Karachi while Sepoy Faraz hailed from Kotli district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

The incident comes less than a week after four army soldiers were martyred and one other was injured in two separate incidents of firing by terrorists near the Afghan border. The first of those incidents had occurred in North Waziristan tribal district, where miscreants had opened fire on a routine patrolling party of security forces near the Abba Khel area of Spinwam tehsil, claiming the life of Sepoy Akhtar Hussain. Two miscreants were also killed in the subsequent exchange of fire. The banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had claimed responsibility for the ambush.

In the second incident in Dir, suspected terrorists had opened fire from across the Pak-Afghan border on Pakistani troops who were busy in border fencing. Three soldiers were martyred.

Following the attacks, the Foreign Office had summoned the Afghan Charge d' Affaires to lodge a formal protest against the firing incidents.

Pakistan has already fenced an over 900-kilometre-long portion of the Afghan border in an attempt to prevent movement of miscreants and terrorists between the two countries.

Pakistani forces have also conducted a series of operations against militant groups in the tribal districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa over the years. While officials say the area has largely been pacified...