By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Security forces killed at least 27 militants and wounded several others in a series of intense encounters across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province this week, according to security sources and official statements, in what appeared to be one of the deadliest stretches of counterterrorism operations in the restive region in recent months.
The largest single toll came in Kurram district, where sources said 22 militants died during an intelligence-led raid in the Manato and Marzai areas. The militants, the sources said, had taken shelter in a residential compound and rigged a house with explosives. When security personnel moved in, an explosion wounded several members of the raiding party, though local residents escaped unharmed.
The military’s media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR, has not issued any official comment on the Kurram operation. In a separate incident in Bannu district, the ISPR said late Wednesday that forces neutralised a terrorist while he was planting an improvised explosive device intended for civilians. A statement posted on X described the dead man as “Indian-sponsored” and said the episode underlined the militants’ growing desperation.
“The incident highlights the growing desperation of the khwarij, who, due to sustained and effective pressure from security forces and law enforcement agencies, were increasingly resorting to cowardly attempts against soft targets,” the ISPR wrote. “Their failed actions reflect their diminishing capabilities and frustration in the face of ongoing counter terrorism efforts.”
The military uses the term “khwarij”, a historical Islamic reference to renegades, to refer to fighters of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan. The ISPR had earlier announced that on November 17 and 18 its troops conducted intelligence-based operations in Bajaur, North Waziristan and Dera Ismail Khan districts against “Fitna al Khwarij.” In Bajaur, soldiers engaged a militant hideout and killed one fighter in a heavy exchange of fire. Additional militants, the statement said “more” without specifying a number, were “neutralised” in the Spinwam and Zakir Khel areas of North Waziristan, while another was killed in Dera Ismail Khan.
Separately, in Lakki Marwat district, the provincial Counter Terrorism Department said its officers killed two militants during a raid in the Sraye Norang area. A CTD statement said the suspects, identified as Mohammad Sohail and Azmatullah, alias Hafiz, opened fire as soon as they spotted the police team. The officers returned fire and killed both men on the spot.
The operations come amid a sharp rise in militant attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and neighbouring Balochistan since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021, with the TTP markedly emboldened and better armed. Pakistani officials have repeatedly accused Afghanistan’s rulers of giving the group sanctuary, a charge the Taliban deny.
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