GILGIT: Two soldiers of the Gilgit-Baltistan Scouts were martyred and another wounded early Friday when militants ambushed a security checkpoint along the Karakoram Highway in northern Pakistan’s Diamer district, police confirmed, reported by Dawn News.
The attack occurred near Chilas at about 12:15 a.m., when unidentified gunmen opened fire from a hilltop overlooking the post. Nine personnel were manning the checkpoint at the time. Senior Superintendent of Police Abdul Hameed told reporters that three men were hit in the barrage of gunfire. Naib Subedar Khush Dad and Havaldar Ashraf succumbed to their wounds, while Lance Naik Sajid Ali, who sustained abdominal injuries, remains under treatment at the Regional Headquarters Hospital in Chilas.
Investigators later recovered two grenades, 10 spent shells, and counted 17 bullet holes ripped through the outpost. The attackers escaped into the rugged terrain before reinforcements arrived.
In the immediate aftermath, police and elite forces fanned out across the district, launching search operations to track down the assailants. “Raids are under way,” SSP Hameed said, adding that no group had claimed responsibility.
The incident revived grim memories of December 2023, when gunmen opened fire on an Islamabad-bound passenger bus in the same stretch of Diamer, killing 10 and injuring 20. Just last month, militants also targeted a Federal Constabulary post along the highway, leaving one soldier dead.
Gilgit-Baltistan’s Interior Minister Shamsul Haq Lone denounced the latest ambush as a strike against peace in the strategically sensitive region. “There had been no prior intelligence regarding the attack,” he said. “The government will pursue the terrorists and bring them to their ultimate fate.”
Chief Minister Haji Gulbar Khan, too, took “strict notice” of what officials described as an act of cowardice, ordering an intensified manhunt.
The Gilgit-Baltistan Scouts, a paramilitary force tasked with guarding borders and maintaining internal security in the mountainous territory adjoining Kashmir, have increasingly found themselves on the frontline of Pakistan’s war against militancy. Their checkpoint near Chilas was established in December after the bus ambush.
As security forces comb the valleys and gorges of Diamer, residents of Gilgit-Baltistan once again confront the shadows of violence along the ancient Karakoram Highway, a route meant to connect, but too often marred by bloodshed.
