By Staff Reporter
PESHAWAR: Security forces have killed 11 militants in separate operations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, sources said on Saturday, days after Islamabad bombed targets inside Afghanistan and accused the Taliban government in Kabul of sponsoring terrorism.
Five of the dead were killed in an intelligence-based operation against hideouts in South Waziristan, a district in the north-west of the country. The sources said the hideouts were destroyed and a large quantity of weapons and ammunition was recovered.
The other six were killed in the Gorander area of Mashkel in Balochistan. According to the sources, the militants opened fire on a security checkpost and tried to flee, but were pursued and shot dead by troops who “responded promptly”. The operation was carried out under Operation Radd-ul-Fitna 3, the name given to the current campaign against militant groups in the province.
The sources described the South Waziristan dead as members of “Fitna al-Khawarij”, the term the state uses for the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The Mashkel dead were described as “Fitna al-Hindustan”. Islamabad adopted that label last year for all armed groups operating in Balochistan, accusing India of sponsoring a proxy war through them.
The sources said the forces were committed to “completely eliminating” terrorism under the Azm-e-Istehkam framework, Pakistan’s declared strategy against militancy.
The raids come at a moment of acute strain on the country’s security apparatus. Pakistan recorded 225 militant attacks in September, the highest monthly total in 12 years, according to the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS), an Islamabad-based think tank. That was up 13 percent on August’s 199, and the third consecutive monthly rise. The September attacks killed 259 people and injured 242, compared with 158 deaths and 181 injuries the month before. Balochistan was the worst-affected province, with 131 attacks against 89 in August. PICSS also recorded 72 abductions linked to militant activity, the highest monthly figure in a decade. The institute has logged 1,232 militant attacks across the country in the first nine months of 2026.
The confrontation with Afghanistan has hardened as the violence has risen. Pakistan carried out airstrikes in two Afghan provinces overnight on Wednesday. Its information ministry said they hit militant hideouts and killed an initial 22 militants. Hours later, the army’s spokesman, Lt Gen Ahmad Sharif, accused the Afghan Taliban government of “abetting and sponsoring terrorism” and said Pakistan would take whatever measures were needed to protect its citizens. He alleged that a Taliban governor had hosted militants planning attacks inside Pakistan at a meeting in Kandahar on 26 August.
The dispute is not new. Pakistan says violence has risen sharply, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, since the Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021. Islamabad has repeatedly urged the Taliban authorities to stop their territory being used for attacks inside Pakistan, and says they have failed to act against the groups responsible. In February, Pakistan’s defence minister, Khawaja Asif, declared “open war” on the Taliban government. China has since mediated talks between senior officials from both sides in Urumqi, but they have not produced a formal agreement to end hostilities.
Inside Pakistan, the past three months have brought a succession of deadly attacks on security personnel and civilians.
Last week, 12 people were killed and 35 injured in a suicide blast at a joint checkpoint near Aman Mela in the Darazinda area of Dera Ismail Khan. The TTP claimed responsibility. On 18 September, 23 people, including 15 police officers, were killed in a blast at a mosque in the old Police Lines in Kohat during Friday prayers. About 100 others were injured. Eight attackers were killed in an overnight clearance operation. The Ittihadul Mujahideen Pakistan group, led by the Afghanistan-based commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur, later claimed responsibility.
In a separate attack, six security personnel, including a captain and a lieutenant, were killed in an exchange of fire in Hangu district, where eight militants also died. On 1 September, six personnel, two of them officers, and a customs official were killed as forces repelled an attempt to breach the Customs House in Balochistan.
Security forces have also reported a run of operations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in recent days. Three militants were killed in Mir Ali on 30 September, five in Bara the day before, and four in Dera Ismail Khan on Monday. Earlier in September, security forces reported killing more than 20 militants between 3 and 5 September, and 10 more in separate operations between 15 and 17 September.
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