By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Security forces killed at least eight “Indian-sponsored” terrorists during an intelligence-led operation in the restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province on Friday, even as separate blasts in another district claimed the lives of three police officers, including a senior superintendent, underscoring the persistent threat of insurgent violence in the region.
The operation in Tank district, part of a broader counterterrorism campaign known as Azm-i-Istehkam, unfolded amid reports of militants from the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, which the government has redesignated as Fitna al Khawarij, a term invoking religious outcasts. “Troops effectively engaged terrorist locations, and after an intense fire exchange, eight Indian sponsored khwarij were sent to hell,” the military’s Inter-Services Public Relations said in a statement.
The statement detailed that the raid, conducted on the reported presence of these militants, yielded weapons and ammunition from the slain fighters, who “remained actively involved in numerous terrorist activities against the security forces and law enforcement agencies as well as killing of innocent civilians.”
Security forces are continuing a “sanitisation operation” to root out any remaining militants in the area, the military added, emphasising that the campaign under Azm-i-Istehkam, approved last year by a federal apex committee on the National Action Plan, would proceed “at full pace to wipe out the menace of foreign sponsored and supported terrorism from the country.”
The Tank operation follows a series of recent clashes in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. On Oct. 16, security forces reported killing 34 “India-backed” terrorists in multiple operations across the province over three days.
Hours after the Tank raid, explosions rocked the Hangu district, also in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, killing three policemen in what officials described as a targeted attack by the same militant network. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s inspector general of police, Zulfiqar Hameed said the first blast struck a police checkpost under the jurisdiction of the Bilyamina police station, though no officers were present there at the time. A second blast, triggered by an improvised explosive device, occurred as a police team approached the site, Hameed said.
Abbas Majeed, the regional police officer for the Kohat division said police had been on high alert across the district and were conducting a search and strike operation nearby, with a cordon established about 100 meters from the checkpost since 10 a.m. The checkpost, an older facility used for rest during operations, was empty when the initial explosion occurred around 2 pm, resulting in no casualties. But as Superintendent of Police (Operations) Asad Zubair and his team arrived in a vehicle, a more powerful improvised explosive device detonated nearby.
“Fitna-al-Khawarij had planted a more powerful IED there in comparison to the one used in the first blast,” Majeed said, noting that two officers died on the spot and Zubair succumbed to his injuries at a hospital. A large police contingent was searching the site afterward.
The attacks drew swift condemnation from Pakistan’s top leaders. Chief Minister Sohail Afridi of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ordered an immediate report from the inspector general and convened a session of the provincial apex committee on law and order. In a statement from his office, Afridi called the incident “unfortunate” and “strongly condemned” it, vowing that the “elements involved would be taken to task at all costs.” “Cowardly attacks cannot demoralise the CTD and police.”
President Asif Ali Zardari, in a statement posted on the Pakistan Peoples Party’s account on X “strongly condemned” what he termed the “attack in Hangu carried out by India-backed Fitna-al-Hindustan terrorists.” He described terrorists as “enemies of the country’s peace and stability” whose “cowardly acts are unacceptable,” and paid tribute to the fallen officers, saying the nation was “proud of the sacrifices of its brave soldiers.” The president lauded the police’s resolve in combating terrorism and prayed for the victims and their families.
The violence comes amid a surge in militant attacks in Pakistan, particularly in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, since the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan ended a ceasefire with the government in November 2022. The group, which has vowed to intensify assaults on security forces and law enforcement, has been blamed for numerous incidents. Just five days earlier, on Oct. 19, police in Bannu district foiled an attack on the Baka Khel police station, killing three militants linked to the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan. On Oct. 18, assailants fired rockets and guns at the Azam Warsak police station in South Waziristan, but were repelled by police and Frontier Corps personnel without casualties. The previous night, on Oct. 17, authorities in Bannu intercepted an explosive-laden rickshaw headed for a police post in Mazanga, killing three terrorists and averting a potential suicide bombing.
The federal government launched Operation Azm-i-Istehkam in June of last year as a renewed effort to counter the escalating threats, with officials repeatedly accusing India of backing militant groups.
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