By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Security forces killed 22 militants in a sweeping intelligence-driven operation in the restive tribal district of North Waziristan, the military said on Tuesday, part of a sustained push against a resurgent insurgency that has increasingly targeted soldiers and civilians near the Afghan border.
The Inter-Services Public Relations, the Pakistani military’s media wing, said the operation began May 17 in the Shewa area of North Waziristan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province long viewed as a stronghold for militant groups. In the past 24 hours, troops engaged a group of fighters in a heavy firefight, killing all 22, according to the statement. Weapons and ammunition were recovered from the site, the military said.
The slain militants belonged to the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, a banned umbrella organization that Islamabad refers to as “Fitna al-Khawarij,” a term denoting those it considers deviant extremists. The ISPR statement said the dead was “Indian-sponsored” and accused them of having coerced and intimidated local residents, using civilians as human shields to secure safe passage. Such tactics, the military said, are “highly condemnable” and cannot be justified by any rationale that endangers public lives.
The area has been cordoned off, and sanitization operations to clear remaining fighters are continuing, the statement said. The action falls under the broader counterterrorism framework known as “Azm-i-Istehkam,” endorsed by the Federal Apex Committee on the National Action Plan, which commits security forces and law enforcement agencies to a sustained campaign against foreign-sponsored terrorism.
The latest clash comes as Pakistan confronts a sharp uptick in militant violence, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces, that began after the Afghan Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021. Pakistani officials have repeatedly pressed the Taliban-led government to dismantle sanctuaries used by the TTP and other groups operating from Afghan soil. Those appeals, Islamabad says, have gone unheeded.
Tensions between the two neighbors have escalated in recent months. The two countries clashed along the border last year, leading to a brief ceasefire in October 2025. Pakistan launched a new border operation, dubbed Ghazab lil-Haq, in February to counter an unprovoked Afghan fire. The North Waziristan operation is the latest in a string of military actions. Earlier this month, security forces killed five militants in separate engagements in the Tank and Dera Ismail Khan districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In early April, eight terrorists were neutralized along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in North Waziristan.
Last week in Balochistan’s Barkhan district, a major and four soldiers were killed during a sanitization operation. In the follow-up action, authorities said three commanders from Balochistan-based militant groups were arrested and 35 operatives killed. Pakistan has long accused India of funding and directing militant attacks inside its territory, allegations New Delhi has consistently denied. Afghan officials have similarly rejected Pakistani claims that their soil is being used as a launchpad for cross-border raids.
Despite multiple rounds of diplomatic talks, the two countries have yet to resolve the underlying disputes over militant sanctuaries. The military’s statement Tuesday underscored its determination to press ahead. “The relentless counter-terrorism campaign under vision ‘Azm-i-Istehkam’ … will continue at full pace to wipe out the menace of foreign-sponsored and supported terrorism from the country.”
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