By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani security forces repelled a suicide bombing in the country’s northwest on Saturday, killing four militants including the bomber himself, in an operation that came less than 24 hours after a separate attack left 15 people dead in the same province.
The military’s media wing, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), said the assault took place in South Waziristan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, when attackers attempted to drive an explosives-laden vehicle into a security check-post. Troops intercepted the vehicle before it could reach its target, destroying it outside the post’s perimeter and killing the bomber inside.
“Their nefarious designs were checked and decisively foiled by the vigilant and resolute response of security forces,” the ISPR said in a statement, adding that the vehicle had been “successfully engaged and destroyed” before it could inflict any damage.
Three further militants who had accompanied the bomber were pushed back by troops into a nearby compound, where they were killed in “a deliberate clearance operation carried out with precision”. ISPR said no security personnel were killed or injured during the operation.
Following the clearance, forces carried out a wider sweep of the surrounding area in search of any remaining fighters, as part of the ongoing counter-insurgency effort under the banner Azm-i-Istehkam — a campaign endorsed by the Federal Apex Committee on the National Action Plan. The ISPR said the operation “will continue at full pace to wipe out the menace of foreign-sponsored and supported terrorism from the country”.
The military referred to the assailants using the term “Fitna al Khawarij”, the state’s designation for fighters belonging to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.
The attack came a day after gunmen struck a joint police and military checkpost in Tank, a neighbouring district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, killing 15 people. Those who died included 12 soldiers, two police officers and a government official. ISPR said that the attack unfolded in the early hours of Friday morning.
The two incidents point to what analysts describe as an intensifying campaign of militant violence across Pakistan’s western provinces, which border Afghanistan. Figures published in the Centre for Research and Security Studies’ Annual Security Report 2025 show fatalities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa climbed sharply last year, rising from 1,620 in 2024 to 2,331 in 2025.
The resurgence of militancy — concentrated largely in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, where attacks have repeatedly targeted security forces and law enforcement — has prompted the state to step up counter-terrorism operations across both provinces.
Islamabad has long maintained that militant groups operating against Pakistan retain sanctuaries across the border in Afghan territory, and has repeatedly accused India of providing support to such networks.
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