By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Security forces have killed 24 militants in a wave of gun battles in the northwestern district of Bannu over the past 24 hours, the military said on Friday, as authorities pressed a widening offensive against a resurgent insurgency near the Afghan border.
The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing, said troops had launched intelligence-based raids after a spike in attacks on police and a string of suicide bombings in the district, part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
ISPR said “Fitna al-Khawarij”, the government’s official term for the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which Islamabad describes as a proxy for India, was blamed for the violence.
“Security forces have initiated extensive joint intelligence-based operations to hunt the perpetrators of these heinous attacks and their support infrastructure,” the ISPR statement said, adding that the raids followed “fierce fire exchanges” across Bannu district and surrounding areas.
Weapons and ammunition were recovered from the bodies of the militants, who the military said had been “actively involved in numerous terrorist activities and the killing of innocent civilians.”
The army vowed the offensive would continue under a campaign known as “Azm-i-Istehkam”, or Resolve for Stability, a nationwide counter-terrorism drive endorsed by the Federal Apex Committee on the National Action Plan. The military pledged to “wipe out the menace of foreign-sponsored and supported terrorism from the country.”
President Asif Ali Zardari praised the operation, saying it demonstrated the “professional expertise, resolve and sacrifices” of Pakistan’s security forces, according to a statement from the presidency.
Zardari said action would be taken to their “logical conclusion” against militants he said were “operating under India’s patronage,” along with their facilitators. “Elements targeting innocent civilians and law enforcement agencies deserve no leniency,” he said, adding that the nation stood behind the security forces.
Separate raid kills five, several arrested
In a separate operation, the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) said its personnel, working alongside local police, killed five suspected militants and arrested several others during a raid overnight Thursday in Bannu’s Gulbahar area.
According to a CTD statement, police moved on “credible information about the presence of terrorists” in the area, within the jurisdiction of Hawed police station. A firefight broke out when the militants “opened indiscriminate fire” on a CTD Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team, the statement said, adding that officers returned fire in self-defence.
The clash lasted around 40 minutes before police launched a search operation that led to the five deaths, the CTD said. Reinforcements later cordoned off the area as forces continued searching for militants who had fled the scene, while forensic teams worked to identify the dead.
Officers recovered five Kalashnikov rifles, ten magazines, five ammunition bandoliers, two hand grenades and a large quantity of ammunition from the site, according to the CTD, which said the material had been seized for forensic examination. The department said legal action would also be pursued against financiers and other facilitators linked to the militant network.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police chief Zulfiqar Hameed praised the SWAT team and local officers involved in the raid. “IBOs against the terrorists of Fitna al-Khawarij, their facilitators and their support networks will continue in a more effective manner,” he said, using the acronym for intelligence-based operations. “The terrorists will be pursued to their safe havens and brought to justice.”
Renewed bloodshed
The latest killings come after months of escalating violence in Bannu, where civilians and security personnel have repeatedly come under attack.
On Wednesday night, militants rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into Miryan police station in Bannu, triggering a powerful explosion followed by a lengthy gun battle. Police said the attackers tried to storm the station in the aftermath of the blast but were repelled by officers and reinforcements.
A police officer, identified as Noor Jamal Khan, later died of injuries sustained in the assault, Bannu police said in a statement Thursday. Six other security personnel and four civilians were wounded.
The unrest has triggered a series of targeted raids by police and the military across Bannu in recent weeks. On June 26, security forces killed seven militants in Baka Khel tehsil after a drone strike on a vehicle found to be carrying heavy weaponry, including a 12.7mm machine gun, rocket-propelled grenades and mortar shells, security sources said at the time.
Pakistan has faced a sharp rise in militant attacks since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in neighbouring Afghanistan in 2021, with Islamabad accusing the Kabul government of sheltering TTP fighters who stage cross-border raids — a charge the Taliban administration denies.
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