By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The security forces have killed 27 militants during a series of intelligence-led operations in the restive North Waziristan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa over the past 72 hours, the military said on Sunday, describing the offensive as both a counter-terrorism sweep and an act of retribution for the murder of a prominent tribal elder.
The Inter-Services Public Relations directorate (ISPR) said forces had engaged multiple militant positions in the Miranshah area after what it described as “fierce exchanges of fire”, adding that weapons and ammunition were recovered from those killed. The military identified the fighters as belonging to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which it referred to by the state-designated label “Fitna al-Khawarij” — a term carrying deliberate religious and political connotations — and alleged the group operates with Indian backing.
The operations, the ISPR said, had delivered justice for the killing of Malik Saifullah Dawar, a tribal elder shot dead outside his home in Miranshah in early May in circumstances that shocked the surrounding community and triggered a prolonged armed confrontation between local tribesmen and militants.
According to sources familiar with the events, Dawar had, the day before his death, intervened when suspected militants occupied a local mosque — rallying fellow elders to confront the armed men and force them to vacate the premises. The following day, on 1 May, a group of men returned to the area, called Dawar out of his house, and shot him dead on the spot. The killing provoked an intense and sustained gun battle between fighters from the Darpa Khel tribe and the attackers, with both sides deploying automatic weapons in a firefight that lasted several hours.
The ISPR statement said the neutralisation of the group “has avenged the heinous act of target killing” of Dawar and that “perpetrators have been brought to justice.” Sanitisation operations, it added, were continuing across the area to root out any remaining fighters, with the campaign framed within the government’s broader Azm-i-Istehkam counter-terrorism framework — a programme approved by the Federal Apex Committee on the National Action Plan.
The pace of military activity in North Waziristan had already drawn significant attention before Sunday’s announcement. On 2 June, the district administration imposed an indefinite Section 144 order across the Miranshah subdivision, restricting all movement and traffic in a measure widely interpreted as cover for an intensification of operations and as a precautionary measure against potential retaliatory strikes. Prior to that, security forces had reportedly foiled a suicide attack on a military post in the vicinity of Miranshah.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in a statement released by his office on Sunday, praised the security forces for what he described as a highly successful operation. He expressed particular satisfaction that those responsible for Dawar’s death had been eliminated, and said the nation took “immense pride” in the conduct of its armed forces. “Operations by security forces and law enforcement agencies will relentlessly continue until the complete eradication of terrorism from the country,” he said.
North Waziristan, bordering Afghanistan, has for two decades been among Pakistan’s most turbulent territories and a primary theatre for TTP activity. The group, which has been waging an insurgency against the Pakistani state since 2007, has intensified attacks in recent years following the Taliban’s return to power in Kabul — a development that significantly expanded its operational space along the Afghan frontier.
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