By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: At least 22 militants and two police officers were killed Saturday in a fierce gunbattle in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, authorities said, one of two significant counterterrorism operations conducted the same day as the country struggles with a sharp increase in attacks linked to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and other extremist groups.
The clash erupted during a joint intelligence-based raid by police and the Counter-Terrorism Department in the Mirian area of Bannu district, a longtime militancy hotspot close to the Afghan border, according to Raza Khan, a senior police official. Acting on a tip about the presence of TTP fighters, the forces engaged the militants in a prolonged shootout that was still underway when Khan spoke by telephone with reporters.
“The operation is ongoing,” Khan said. “So far, 22 militants have been killed, while two police personnel have been martyred.” Three other officers suffered minor injuries, he added. Final casualty figures would be released once the operation concluded, he said.
In a separate but nearly simultaneous action on the outskirts of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, the Counter-Terrorism Department killed nine terrorists while losing four of its own personnel, a CTD spokesperson said. Six other officers were wounded in the exchange of fire in the Panjpai and Nohsar areas. The Quetta operation came only hours after the initial Bannu raid. In that earlier action in Bannu’s Thana Miryan jurisdiction, authorities said they killed 15 terrorists, injured more than 10 others, and recovered and safely defused a 10-kilogram improvised explosive device. One additional police officer was martyred and another injured in the Bannu fighting.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi praised the security forces for what he described as timely action that “foiled the evil intentions of the khwarij,” the official term used by Pakistani authorities for TTP militants. Naqvi extended his “deepest sympathies to the families of the fallen officers.”
Saturday’s violence fits a pattern of intensified militancy that has gripped Pakistan’s western regions since the Afghan Taliban seized power in Kabul in 2021. Islamabad has repeatedly accused the Afghan Taliban regime of allowing TTP and other groups to operate from Afghan soil — a charge Kabul denies. The resulting tensions have poisoned relations between the two neighbors, triggering sporadic border clashes since February and souring what had been a brief period of relative calm after a ceasefire agreement in October 2025.
The latest operations follow several deadly strikes in recent days. Militants attacked a security compound in Bajaur district earlier this week with an explosives-laden truck and gunfire, killing at least nine paramilitary officers. On May 10, a suicide bombing and subsequent assault on a checkpoint in Bannu left 15 policemen dead. Pakistani officials say the TTP and affiliated groups have grown bolder, striking security convoys and checkpoints with modern weapons and even quadcopter drones. In response, authorities have stepped up intelligence-driven raids and large-scale combing operations.
In Punjab province, the Counter-Terrorism Department announced on Saturday that it had arrested 13 suspected terrorists belonging to banned organizations, including Fitna al Khawarij — the state’s designation for TTP-linked militants — during a week-long series of 58 intelligence-based operations across multiple districts. The raids targeted Lahore, Jhang, Sahiwal, Jhelum, Chiniot, Mandi Bahauddin, and Mianwali.
Among the 58 suspects interrogated, authorities seized arms, explosives, and other prohibited materials, including 2,010 grams of explosives, eight detonators, 15 feet of safety fuse wire, four improvised explosive devices, pamphlets and magazines of banned groups, prepaid cards, mobile phones, and cash. One suspect, identified as Mukhtar Ahmed, was detained in Lahore with a large quantity of explosives. Officials said the group had been planning attacks on law enforcement offices.
Thirteen terrorism-related cases were registered against the arrested men, and further investigation was continuing, a CTD spokesperson said. In a broader security sweep, the department conducted 1,487 combing operations across Punjab in which 53,335 individuals were checked, 168 suspects detained, 153 FIRs registered, and 150 recoveries of illicit material made. The Punjab arrests follow earlier crackdowns: 36 terrorists detained on March 28 and 26 others arrested in mid-February.
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