11 Soldiers, 19 Terrorists Killed In Military Op In Pak's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Eleven Pakistani soldiers, including a Lieutenant Colonel and a Major, and 19 terrorists were killed in a operation against the Tehreek-e-Tailban Pakistan, also known as the Pak Taliban, in the Orakzai district of the remote Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan.

The military operation was launched late Tuesday based on intel about the 'fitna al-khawarij', i.e., the term used by the Pak government for local extremist groups like the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.

A 'sanitisation' exercise will eliminate other terrorists in the area, the Army said.

Last month 17 TTP terrorists were killed in a multi-service raid on a hideout in Karak, another district in violence-hit Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Three police officers were hurt in that shooting.

And that, in turn, was after an earlier intel-based operation in Dera Ismail Khan, another district in the northwest province, in which 13 Pakistani Taliban fighters were shot to death.

Pakistan has seen a rise in terrorist-related violence in recent years, much of it claimed by separatist groups and the TTP, which is distinct from, but allied with, the Afghan Taliban.

The TTP has stepped up activities since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan 2021, and many of its leaders and fighters are believed to have taken refuge in Afghanistan since.

The scale of violence and military action in the area was underlined last month by the Pak government bombing a village in the Tirah Valley that was supposedly hiding terrorists.

NDTV Explains | Why Pak Bombed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Village, Killing 30 Civilians

Thirty civilians, including women and children, were killed in an operation meant to target a TTP bomb-manufacturing facility that reportedly employed civilians to act as 'human shields'.

Overall, terrorism-related violence in Pakistan has surged an estimated 46 per cent in the past three months alone, with Pak-based think tanks reporting at least 901 fatalities and 599 injuries, including those to civilians, from a total of 329 terror attacks and counter-terror operations.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan - both share a porous border with Afghanistan - faced the brunt, accounting for more than 96 per cent of the total violence across the country.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was the worst-hit, suffering nearly 71 per cent of the total violence-linked fatalities and over 67 per cent of incidents of violence.

With inputs from agencies

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