Pakistan foils Daesh expansion into the country

Rawalpindi - Pakistani authorities have so far arrested 309 people associated with Daesh on its territory.

Pakistan's military on Thursday said it has crushed Daesh's attempt to expand there, dismissing as propaganda claims by the militants that they had carried out a major bombing last month.

The comments were, however, a rare acknowledgment by a senior Pakistani official that Daesh, mainly based in Syria and Iraq, has had any active presence in a country that is home to militant groups including the Afghan and Pakistan Taleban, Al Qaeda and the Haqqani network.

Lieutenant General Asim Bajwa, the military's top spokesman, also rejected US complaints that it was not acting against the Haqqani network, suspected of carrying out suicide bomb attacks in Kabul, saying Pakistan was pursuing an "indiscriminate operation" against all militants.

Pakistani authorities have so far arrested 309 people associated with Daesh on its territory, he said. They were involved in attacks on media and security personnel, and were planning attacks on government, diplomatic and civilian targets, he added.

"They tried to make an ingress, and they failed and they have been apprehended so far," Bajwa said.

Most of those captured by Pakistan were established Pakistani militants who had switched loyalties to Daesh's self-proclaimed worldwide caliphate, but about 25 were foreigners including Afghans and some Syrians, he said.

Bajwa said that of a core group of 20 organisers, "we have captured all of them, except for one who I am sure is not in Pakistan".

He said Daesh fighters were still present in the Afghan provinces of Nangarhar, Khost and Kunar, which lie along the border with Pakistan.

The movement's leader for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Hafiz Saeed Khan, was killed last month by a US drone strike in eastern Afghanistan.

• Pakistan