By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Security forces have killed four militants in separate operations in the country’s north-west and south-west, security sources said on Wednesday, in the latest raids this week that have left dozens dead.
Three members of a group the state calls Fitna al-Khawarij were killed in an intelligence-based operation in Mir Ali, in North Waziristan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the sources said. Fitna al-Khawarij is the label Pakistan’s government and military use for the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
Security officials said a large cache of weapons and ammunition was recovered and that militant hideouts in Mir Ali and surrounding areas were destroyed. They also said forces foiled an attempt by militants to intercept a truck carrying rations near Mir Ali Bazaar.
In Balochistan, soldiers launched an operation near Mal Madarsa in Surab district, part of a campaign called Operation Radd-ul-Fitna 3. The sources said it followed information that militants were present between Mal Madarsa and Bategu. One militant was killed in an exchange of fire and a second escaped. Weapons and a motorcycle were recovered from the dead man, they said.
The authorities describe the group involved as Fitna al-Hindustan, a term Pakistan applies to the banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and affiliated separatist groups. Islamabad says these groups are proxies of India.
Separately, in Tank district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a militant linked to the TTP was killed when an explosive device he was carrying went off prematurely, the sources said. They said he was on his way to a patwar office, a local land-records office, intending to attack it over an extortion-related dispute. The blast damaged two houses next to the building and brought down their walls. The sources did not report any other casualties.
The claims come from unnamed security sources and could not be independently verified. Access for journalists to much of North Waziristan and rural Balochistan is heavily restricted.
Operations intensify
The latest deaths follow a sharp escalation in Balochistan. On Sunday, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing, said more than 70 militants had been killed across the province in four days. It said 17 were killed in one phase of a major operation in the Shaban area and 56 more in a later clearance operation, with further action in Nushki and Mand.
On Tuesday, security sources said seven militants had been killed in separate operations. Five Fitna al-Khawarij members died in the Bara area of Khyber district, and two Fitna al-Hindustan militants were killed in the Nok Kacha area of Chagai district. The sources said the two in Chagai had set an empty water tanker on fire before trying to flee, and had also been involved in arson attacks along the N-40 highway.
President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif both praised the forces. Mr Zardari said operations would continue to protect lives and property and that the plans of militants acting with foreign support would be defeated. Mr Sharif said they would go on until terrorism was eradicated, which he called the government’s top priority. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi also commended the troops.
A deadly summer
The operations come after a run of attacks on security personnel and civilians.
Last week, 12 people were killed and 35 injured when a blast hit a joint checkpoint near Aman Mela in the Darazinda area of Dera Ismail Khan. The TTP claimed responsibility.
On 19 September, 23 people, including 15 police officers, died in a blast at a mosque in the Police Lines in Kohat during Friday prayers. Eight attackers were killed in a subsequent clearance operation. The Ittihadul Mujahideen Pakistan, led from Afghanistan by Hafiz Gul Bahadur, later claimed responsibility.
In Hangu district, six security personnel, among them a captain and a lieutenant, were killed in a gun battle in which eight militants also died. On 1 September, six personnel, including two officers, and a customs official were killed as forces thwarted an attempt to storm the Customs House in Balochistan.
In July, at least 30 people, 27 of them police officers, were killed when militants ambushed police in the Kach Mangi Phase III area of Ziarat, triggering gun battles that lasted hours. The attackers also abducted several civilians and police personnel. The army, Frontier Corps and Balochistan Police launched a joint operation afterwards, which is still under way.
Militant violence in Pakistan has risen sharply since 2021, when the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan. Islamabad has long accused Kabul of tolerating militants on its soil.
A report by the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) found that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan together accounted for nearly 96 per cent of violence-related deaths in the second quarter of 2026. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was the worst affected, with 475 deaths (more than 61 percent) and 151 incidents (57 percent of the national total). Balochistan recorded 265 deaths (34 percent) and 94 incidents (35 percent).
Copyright © 2021 Independent Pakistan | All rights reserved
