By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Security forces killed two militants, including a ringleader long sought for his role in a February suicide bombing that killed an army lieutenant colonel, in an intelligence-based operation in the northwestern district of Bannu, the military said on Monday.
The raid unfolded on April 19 after troops received reports of terrorists in the area, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations, the armed forces’ media wing. In the ensuing gunbattle, forces neutralized Waheedullah, also known as Muktiar, and an accompanying suicide bomber, both affiliated with the Indian-sponsored faction of the Fitna-al-Khwarij network. Troops recovered a suicide jacket, weapons and ammunition from the site.
Waheedullah ranked among Pakistan’s most-wanted militants for his involvement in multiple attacks that killed security personnel and civilians, the ISPR said. He had served as the primary handler for the suicide bomber who struck in Bannu on Feb. 21, an assault that killed Lt. Col. Gul Faraz. The military described the Sunday operation as direct retribution for that attack and said it had prevented a larger planned assault. “Sanitization operations are being conducted to eliminate any other Indian-sponsored terrorists found in the area,” the ISPR statement added.
The action forms part of the broader counterterrorism campaign known as Azm-e-Istehkam, which Pakistani officials have vowed to pursue at full pace to eradicate what they call foreign-backed militancy. The Bannu operation comes against the backdrop of a sharp escalation in terrorist activity since the Afghan Taliban seized power in Kabul in August 2021. Cross-border incidents have surged, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces, which share long, porous borders with Afghanistan. In response, Pakistan launched Operation Ghazab lil-Haq, during which 684 Afghan Taliban operatives and affiliated militants have been killed and more than 900 injured. Pakistani forces have also destroyed 252 militant checkposts under the operation.
Tensions between Islamabad and Kabul boiled over in October 2025 when Afghan Taliban fighters and allied militants launched unprovoked attacks on Pakistani border posts. The resulting clashes left more than 200 Taliban and affiliated militants dead and 23 Pakistani soldiers killed. Despite multiple rounds of diplomatic talks, the two sides have failed to reach any agreement, largely because of the Afghan Taliban’s reluctance to act against terrorist groups operating from its territory, Pakistani officials have repeatedly stated.
In a separate incident in southwestern Balochistan province, militants killed two police officers — including a female constable — and wounded three others during a shootout in the remote mountainous town of Bajoi, about 35 miles from Khuzdar city, authorities said on Monday. The firefight erupted when a police team, responding to a robbery complaint, began searching homes in the area and came under fire from militants holed up there, according to Khuzdar Additional Superintendent of Police Abdul Qudus. The slain officers were identified as Constable Malik Naz, a woman, and Head Constable Sami Ullah; both were local residents of Khuzdar district. Qudus noted that the presence of the female constable was standard procedure for searches involving homes.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which marks the first time in the region’s long-running militancy that a woman police officer has been targeted in this manner. Balochistan has been the epicenter of an intensifying ethnic Baloch separatist insurgency in recent years, though the province has also seen spillover from broader jihadist networks.
Provincial Home Minister Ziaullah Langove praised the slain officers’ bravery and vowed that those responsible would be brought to justice. “The sacrifices of police soldiers in the fight against terrorism are a matter of pride for the nation,” he said in a statement. “Terrorists involved in targeting police soldiers will not be forgiven under any circumstances.”
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