By Staff Reporter
PESHAWAR: The security forces have killed six suspected militants in two separate intelligence-led operations across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Tuesday night, as authorities pressed ahead with a campaign against the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan network.
The operations, conducted by the province’s Counter Terrorism Department, targeted members of what the state officially designates as Fitna al-Khawarij — the government’s term of choice for TTP militants, adopted as part of a broader effort to delegitimise the group by framing it within an Islamic theological context.
The first operation unfolded in Kohat district, where CTD intelligence had identified a group of militants allegedly plotting to obstruct the movement of law enforcement personnel. According to the department, the suspects had established an unauthorised checkpoint on Shakardara Road when a Special Weapons and Tactics team was dispatched to intercept them.
Upon the team’s arrival, the militants opened fire, triggering a gun battle that left three of them dead. Troops recovered three Kalashnikov rifles, nine magazines and a quantity of ammunition from the scene. A number of suspects were said to have fled before the security forces could close the cordon.
The second and more significant operation took place in Charsadda district, where Mardan CTD officers had received intelligence that a cell of fighters was moving out of Mohmand district with the intention of carrying out attacks in the area. Teams were positioned at Shabqadar in a pre-planned ambush. When the militants arrived and came under challenge, they opened fire, setting off what officials described as an “intense exchange”. Three men were found dead once the shooting had stopped.
The CTD identified the three killed in Charsadda as Hayat Khan, also known as Hayatullah; a man named Asim; and Aminullah, who went by the aliases Muawiya and Qari. Preliminary investigations indicated that all three were wanted in connection with multiple terrorism and targeted killing offences. Hayat Khan was a proclaimed offender linked to the murder of Maulana Izzatullah, a religious scholar, while Asim was accused of involvement in attacks on police personnel and religious figures in Khyber district. Three Kalashnikovs and hand grenades were recovered from the scene. A search operation to track down those who escaped was said to be ongoing.
The back-to-back operations reflect the scale of the security challenge confronting Pakistan’s civilian and military authorities in the northwest, where TTP militants have sustained a grinding insurgency along the Afghan border for years. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been particularly vulnerable to infiltration from Mohmand and the surrounding tribal districts, and the movement of militants into settled areas such as Charsadda has long been a concern for provincial authorities.
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