ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani Taliban claimed a brazen overnight raid on an army outpost near the border with Afghanistan on Saturday, which intelligence officials said killed 16 soldiers and critically wounded five more.
The siege started after midnight and lasted about two hours as around 30 militants pummelled the mountainous outpost from three sides, one senior intelligence official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
“Sixteen soldiers were martyred and five were critically injured in the assault,” he said. “The militants set fire to the wireless communication equipment, documents and other items present at the checkpoint.”
A second intelligence official also anonymously confirmed the toll of dead and wounded in the attack in the Makeen area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, 40 kilometers (24 miles) from the Afghan border.
Pakistan’s domestic chapter of the Taliban claimed the attack in a statement, saying it was staged “in retaliation for the martyrdom of our senior commanders.”
The group claimed to have seized a hoard of military gear including machine guns and a night vision device.
Pakistan’s military has not yet issued a statement on the incident.
Pakistan has been battling a resurgence of militant violence in its western border regions since the Taliban’s 2021 return to power in Afghanistan.
Islamabad accuses Kabul’s rulers of failing to root out militants staging attacks on Pakistan from over the border.
The Pakistani Taliban — known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — share a common ideology with their Afghan counterparts who surged back to power three years ago.
Kabul’s new rulers have pledged to evict foreign militant groups from Afghan soil.
But a UN Security Council report in July estimated up to 6,500 TTP fighters are based there — and said “the Taliban do not conceive of TTP as a terrorist group.”
The report said the Afghan Taliban show “ad hoc support to, and tolerance of, TTP operations, including the supplying of weapons and permission for training.”
The spike in attacks has soured Islamabad-Kabul relations. Security was cited as one reason for Pakistan’s campaign last year to evict hundreds of thousands of undocumented Afghan migrants.
 

KARACHI: In a chilling blow to “deceptive marketing,” the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) on Friday imposed a hefty fine of Rs75 million ($269,530) each on two multinational companies, Unilever Pakistan and Friesland Campina Engro, for misleading consumers by advertising their products as “ice cream.”
The CCP took action following a complaint by Pakistan Fruit Juice Company, the manufacturer of “Hico,” which objected to the marketing practices adopted by its rivals.
The CCP maintained that the two companies were selling “frozen desserts” while passing them off as ice cream, a distinct product category made from milk, cream or other dairy products.
“It is held that a false and misleading impression of ‘frozen dessert’ as ‘ice cream’ was created and continued by the Respondents through their advertisements, in order to make the consumers believe that ‘frozen dessert’ products are also ‘ice cream,’” the CCP said in its written order.
“The Respondents advertised, labelled and marketed their products without disclosing the true nature of their products as frozen desserts,” it continued, adding that the two companies “took economic advantage of their deceptive marketing practices to the detriment of consumers welfare.”
The CCP’s ruling referenced the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) and the Punjab Pure Food Regulations 2018, which define “frozen dessert” and “ice cream” as distinct products.
According to these standards, “ice cream” is made from milk, cream, or other dairy products, while “frozen desserts” are prepared from a pasteurized mix consisting of edible vegetable oils and other ingredients.
The CCP also noted that other countries, including the US, India and Australia, maintain the same standards, where the term “ice cream” can only be applied to dairy-based products.
The commission instructed the companies to stop their current marketing practices and remove advertisements presenting frozen desserts as ice cream.
It instructed them to provide clear disclosures about their products’ nature and ingredients, adding that failure to comply with the verdict within 30 days would result in additional fines.