Deobandi Lashkar-e-Islam threatens to resist Operation Khyber-IV

Taliban-allied Deobandi terror outfit Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) has refuted earlier official claims about its taking refuge in the bordering region of the Nangarhar province in Afghanistan and insisted that they had never vacated their bases in Rajgal which were camouflaged by thick forests and high cliffs.

Official sources said that several hideouts of the banned Lashkar-i-Islam (LI) and the militant Daesh (ISIS) group were targeted during the daylong shelling. Pakistan Air Force planes have participated in the strikes along with military helicopters at the LI and Daesh bases in Pakdara, Naray Naw, Sattar Kalay and Khairaba areas of Rajgal under its Operation Khyber-IV.
Claims about human and material losses made by security forces could not be independently verified as journalists had no access to the region vacated by its Kukikhel inhabitants after the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and LI occupied the Rajgal heights and surrounding areas in 2011.
The LI, in a telephonic contact with the media, refuted official claims about the presence of members of the IS in the region and claimed that it was the sole occupant of the Rajgal region since 2011.