By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD The security forces have killed 22 suspected terrorists in a joint intelligence-based operation in the Khyber district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Tuesday, the military said Friday, though the clash also resulted in the death of a 10-year-old child.
The Inter-Services Public Relations, the media wing of the Pakistani military, said the operation was launched after intelligence indicated the presence of militants in the area. During an intense exchange of fire, the militants — described by the ISPR as “khawarij” belonging to the “Indian-sponsored Fitna-al-Khwarij,” the military’s term for the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan — opened indiscriminate fire “due to cowardice and fear of getting apprehended alive,” the statement said. That gunfire killed the child, identified only by age in the official account.
Weapons and ammunition were recovered from the site, the ISPR said, adding that the dead militants had been actively involved in multiple terrorist attacks in the region. A “sanitisation operation” was underway to clear any remaining fighters, the military said.
The deaths were the latest in Pakistan’s counterterrorism campaign, which the ISPR described as continuing “at full pace” under the “Azm-e-Istehkam” initiative. “Such sacrifices of our innocent civilians further strengthen our resolve,” the statement added, referring to the child’s death as further fuel for the government’s determination to eliminate what it calls foreign-sponsored terrorism.
The ISPR reiterated that the country’s “relentless” counterterrorism efforts would continue “to wipe out the menace of foreign-sponsored and supported terrorism from the country.”
The operation came against the backdrop of a sharp nationwide rise in militant violence. According to the Islamabad-based Pak Institute for Peace Studies, terrorist attacks across Pakistan increased by 34 percent in 2025, while terrorism-related fatalities rose 21 percent year-over-year. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the surge has been particularly acute. The Centre for Research and Security Studies reported that fatalities in the province climbed from 1,620 in 2024 to 2,331 in 2025.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which shares a long and porous border with Afghanistan, has borne the brunt of the resurgence since the Afghan Taliban seized power in Kabul in 2021. Pakistani officials have repeatedly accused the Afghan Taliban regime of allowing TTP fighters and other militants to operate from Afghan soil, a charge Kabul denies. Islamabad has responded with intensified domestic operations and occasional cross-border action.
Last month alone, security forces killed 13 terrorists in five separate operations across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Those actions followed the martyrdom of a lieutenant colonel and a sepoy in a suicide bombing during an intelligence-based operation in Bannu. In a January briefing, ISPR Director General Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry disclosed that Pakistani law enforcement agencies, including the army, police, Frontier Constabulary and intelligence services, had conducted a staggering 75,175 intelligence-based operations throughout 2025.
The military has also conducted larger-scale actions against militants linked to the Afghan Taliban. Information Minister Attaullah Tarar announced that Operation Ghazab lil-Haq resulted in the deaths of approximately 796 Afghan Taliban fighters and allied militants, with more than 1,000 others injured. The operation destroyed 286 Afghan Taliban posts and captured 44 others, according to the minister. Tensions spilt into open border clashes in October 2025, when Afghan Taliban and allied militants launched unprovoked assaults on Pakistani positions. More than 200 militants were killed in the fighting, while 23 Pakistani soldiers died.
In a separate incident on Thursday night in the Domel area of Bannu district, also in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, unidentified militants abducted and killed two young men from the Taus Khel tribe of the Hathi Khel Subdivision in Wazir, Bannu. The victims were identified as Shafiullah, son of Shafi Gul, and Faheemullah, son of Bakhta Mir.
According to police and local sources, the two men were travelling by car late at night when they reached the Painda Khel area. Armed militants signalled them to stop. When the men did not comply, the attackers opened fire on the vehicle, killing one man on the spot and injuring the other. The militants then took both men to an undisclosed location. One was executed in captivity. Their bodies were recovered the next morning — Shafiullah’s at Umarzai Chowk and Faheemullah’s near Isparka Chowk.
The Hathi Khel tribe has actively resisted militant influence for more than a year, during which several young men and tribal elders have been killed in similar incidents. Residents of the area have appealed to the government and law enforcement agencies to restore peace and security. Violence in Bannu has also included attacks on police officers and participants in local jirgas, or tribal councils, prompting targeted operations by police and security forces to dismantle militant networks.
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