By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Six soldiers from the Pakistani Army, including a captain, were martyred during an intense gun battle with militants in the rugged hills of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, the military said on Wednesday, in the latest flare-up of violence along the country’s volatile border with Afghanistan.
The clash unfolded during an intelligence-based operation in the area of Dogar in Kurram District, a remote region long plagued by cross-border militancy. Seven militants, described by the military as “Indian sponsored khwarij” affiliated with the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, were killed in the exchange of fire, according to a statement from the Inter-Services Public Relations, the military’s media wing
“During the conduct of [the] operation, seven Indian sponsored khwarij were sent to hell due to effective engagement by own troops,” the statement said. Among the martyred was Capt. Noman Saleem, 24, from Mianwali, whom the ISPR said “a brave young medical officer who, besides performing the duties of medical care, also fought gallantly and embraced shahadat (martyrdom) along with his five men.”
The others killed were Havildar Amjad Ali, 39, from Swabi; Naik Waqas Ahmad, 36, from Rawalpindi; Sepoy Aijaz Ali, 23, from Shikarpur; Sepoy Muhammad Waleed, 23, from Jhelum; and Sepoy Muhammad Shahbaz, 32, from Khairpur.
A sanitization sweep was underway in the area to root out any remaining militants, the ISPR said, vowing that Pakistan’s security forces would press ahead with a “relentless counterterrorism campaign” under the banner of Operation Azm-e-Istehkam.
The effort, approved by the government’s Federal Apex Committee on the National Action Plan, aims to eradicate “the menace of foreign sponsored and supported terrorism,” the statement concluded.
The operation underscored the precarious security situation in Pakistan’s northwest, where attacks have surged since the TTP abandoned a fragile ceasefire with the government in 2022. Militants, who control pockets across the border in Afghanistan, have increasingly targeted police, law enforcement and the military, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and neighboring Balochistan.
Just days earlier, on Sunday, forces thwarted two major infiltration attempts from Afghanistan on Oct. 24 and 25, killing 25 militants, including four suicide bombers, and seizing a large cache of weapons and explosives in separate actions in North Waziristan and Kurram Districts. In one of those engagements, in Spinwam, North Waziristan, “own troops effectively engaged these groups of khwarij [and] as a result of precise and skilful engagements, fifteen khwarij, including four suicide bombers belonging to [the] Indian proxy, Fitna al Khawarij were sent to hell,” the ISPR said.
Pakistan has repeatedly accused India of backing the TTP. and other insurgent groups as part of a covert campaign to destabilise its neighbour. The military’s use of terms like “Fitna al Khawarij” and “Indian sponsored” reflects Islamabad’s narrative of external interference fueling the unrest.
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