ISLAMABAD: Pakistani security forces shot dead five militants in the country’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province in an intelligence-based operation, the military’s media wing said on Wednesday, as Islamabad battles surging militancy.
The operation was conducted in KP’s restive Lakki Marwat district, where militants mostly from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have conducted attacks on security forces in the past.
“During the conduct of operation, own troops effectively engaged khwarij location and resultantly, five khwarij were sent to hell, while two Khwarij also got injured,” the military’s media wing said, referring to the outlawed TTP.
The military said that a sanitization operation was being conducted to eliminate any militants in the area.
“Security forces of Pakistan are determined to wipe out the menace of terrorism from the country,” it said.
Pakistan witnessed a spike in militant violence in its two western provinces, KP and Balochistan, since the Pakistani Taliban called off their fragile truce with the government in November 2022. The group has intensified its attacks in recent months.
Islamabad has blamed the surge in violence on militants operating out of neighboring Afghanistan. Kabul denies the allegation and says rising violence in Pakistan is a domestic issue of Islamabad.
