New Delhi, Jun 29: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Sunday strongly rejected the Pakistan Army's claim that India was behind the Waziristan suicide bomber attack, which killed 13 soldiers.

"We have seen an official statement by the Pakistan Army seeking to blame India for the attack on Waziristan on 28 June. We reject this statement with the contempt it deserves," MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement on X.

As many as 13 Pakistani soldiers were killed and 29 others injured, including 19 civilians, in a suicide attack early Saturday morning in the Khadi area of North Waziristan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

Citing security agencies, Pakistani media stated that a suicide bomber crashed an explosive-laden vehicle into a mine-resistant Improvised Explosive Device (IED) vehicle belonging to the Bomb Disposal Unit amid a curfew imposed due to military movement in the area.

The powerful blast resulted in the killing of 13 military personnel and injuring 29 people, including 19 civilians. There were reports of indiscriminate firing also, which caused injuries to 19 civilians, including women and children, in the area.

The Usud al-Harab organisation, a sub-faction of the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group affiliated with Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) Pakistan, has reportedly taken responsibility for the suicide attack.

The Pakistani media said the attack came just days after two soldiers were killed and 11 terrorists were eliminated during an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in South Waziristan.

The incident is termed as the deadliest attack in North Waziristan in recent months, raising serious concerns over the deteriorating security conditions in the area.

Last month, a car bomb exploded in the Gulistan Area of Qila Abdullah, a border area of Pakistan's Balochistan province with Afghanistan, killing at least four people and injuring more than 20 others, eight of them critically injured. The explosion occurred in Jabbar commercial market situated on the Quetta-Chaman National Highway in Gulistan town, adjacent to the fort of Pakistan's Frontier Corps (FC).

(IANS)

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