By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Ten militants were killed in two separate counterterrorism operations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Thursday, the military’s media wing said on Friday, as Pakistan continues to grapple with a sustained rise in violence along its western border.
The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said the militants belonged to “Fitna al Khwarij,” the state’s designation for terrorists aligned with the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and that New Delhi was sponsoring the group.
According to the military’s account, the first clash unfolded in the Azam Warsak area of South Waziristan, where a group of militants attempted to storm security forces’ checkposts. Troops repelled the assault and, in the ensuing exchange of fire, killed eight terrorists. A second operation the same day in Dir district left two more militants dead.
Weapons and ammunition were recovered from those killed in both encounters, the ISPR said, adding that the men had been “actively involved in numerous terrorist activities” in their respective areas. Sanitisation operations were continuing in both districts to root out any remaining militants, with the military vowing its counterterrorism campaign would carry on “at full pace” to purge what it called “the menace of foreign sponsored and supported terrorism from the country.”
President Asif Ali Zardari led the political response, commending the security forces for their professionalism in foiling the Azam Warsak attack. “The nation stands with its brave security forces and law enforcement agencies and views their sacrifices against terrorism with utmost appreciation,” he said, warning that “the nefarious designs of terrorist elements active under Indian sponsorship will be thwarted at any cost.”
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif echoed that message in a statement issued by his office, praising the forces involved in both operations and declaring that “the government and the entire nation stand with the security forces in the war against terrorism.”
Islamabad has long accused India of funding and training militants to strike Pakistani security personnel and civilians, an allegation New Delhi has consistently rejected. Pakistan also accuses Afghanistan of sheltering TTP fighters and Baloch separatists on its soil, a charge the Taliban administration in Kabul denies, insisting instead that Pakistan’s security problems are of its own making.
The latest killings come against a backdrop of escalating violence that has engulfed Pakistan’s northwestern and southwestern provinces since the Taliban’s return to power in Kabul in August 2021. Separately, the ISPR reported that a further 12 militants were killed in Balochistan’s Washuk and Mastung districts on 5 and 6 August, in operations distinct from Thursday’s clashes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The scale of the bloodshed was underscored by figures from the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, an Islamabad-based think tank, which found that violence tied to militant attacks and counterterrorism operations surged in July, making it the deadliest month of 2026 so far. The think tank recorded 205 deaths that month, including 112 members of the security forces.
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