By Staff Reporter
WANA: Security forces destroyed an explosives-laden vehicle bound for a suicide attack in this South Waziristan town Saturday, killing one militant and wounding five others in an operation officials said prevented what could have been a mass-casualty bombing.
The strike, described by Pakistani state media as the product of a “timely intelligence-based operation,” unfolded in Wana, the administrative seat of Lower South Waziristan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border. State-run Pakistan Television, citing security sources, reported that the vehicle was intended for a suicide attack and that the operation averted a potential catastrophe in Wana and the surrounding area.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi credited the forces with sparing the local population from what he called a major terrorist attempt. In a statement, Naqvi said security personnel had saved the population of Wana and surrounding areas from potential destruction, and that they had destroyed both a vehicle and a motorcycle loaded with explosives with what he described as utmost professional skill in the moments before the planned attack.
Officials did not release the identity of the militant killed in the operation, nor further details on the condition of the five who were wounded.
The Wana strike was the second thwarted suicide attack in the area within a week. Earlier in the week, security forces disrupted an attempt on a military post in the nearby Kari Kot area, killing four militants. Security sources said the attackers had tried to reach the post using an explosives-laden vehicle before the threat was detected and the suicide attacker killed.
South Waziristan and the broader tribal belt of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, once governed as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas before their 2018 merger into the province, have endured a sustained militant campaign for years. In early May, forces foiled another attempted suicide attack on a military post near Azam Warsak Bazaar, also in Lower South Waziristan — an assault that killed one civilian and injured 15 others.
Separately on Saturday, the Counter Terrorism Department announced it had killed a wanted militant during a raid in the Dera Ismail Khan district, several hours’ drive to the south.
The department identified the man as Khalid, known by the alias Commander, saying he was wanted in a series of cases, including the fatal shooting of CTD Constable Muhammad Ali, who was killed in the line of duty on March 17, 2025. The CTD said its technical team had developed confirmed intelligence that Khalid was hiding in the Korai area, within the jurisdiction of the Shorkot police station, prompting a Special Weapons and Tactics team to launch a targeted raid early Saturday along the Tank-Dera Ismail Khan Road.
According to the department’s account, officers surrounded Khalid and called on him to surrender multiple times. Instead, the CTD said, he opened indiscriminate fire on the raiding team, which returned fire and killed him.
The CTD said Khalid was affiliated with the Zakir Kochi Karwan faction of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and had evaded capture for months by disguising his appearance, changing his identity and moving frequently between hideouts. Investigators recovered a 9mm pistol, a hand grenade and a smartphone from the scene, all of which were turned over for forensic examination. The department said it was now working to identify and pursue legal action against those who had financed, sheltered or otherwise supported him.
The twin operations came against a backdrop of rising militant violence across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, even as the tribal districts that saw the heaviest fighting in past years show signs of relative improvement. Data compiled by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies show that the former tribal districts, now merged into the province, recorded 17 attacks in June, down from 22 in May — a decline of roughly 23 percent. The rest of the province moved in the opposite direction, however, with attacks climbing from 32 in May to 37 in June, an increase of about 16 percent.
The longer-term trend is starker still. The Centre for Research and Security Studies, in its Annual Security Report for 2025, found that fatalities across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa rose from 1,620 in 2024 to 2,331 last year — an increase of 711 deaths that the center said accounted for more than 82 percent of the net rise in violence-related deaths nationwide, and represented a year-on-year surge of nearly 44 percent in the province alone.
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