Eight Taliban militants killed in raids in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Peshawar: Security forces in Pakistan killed eight Talibani terrorists in two separate raids in restive Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, officials said Tuesday.

The two separate raids in Tank and Tirah Valley districts in the province took place between January 12-13, according to a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the military.

The first intelligence-based operation took place in the Tank district. During the operation, the security forces "effectively engaged" the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan's (TTP) — Khwarij — location and resultantly six terrorists were killed, ISPR said.

'Khwarij' is a term the government uses for Pakistani Taliban.

In another encounter that took place in the general area of Tirah Valley, Khyber district, where the troops successfully killed two TTP militants.

Sanitisation operations, the ISPR mentioned, are being conducted to eliminate any other terrorists found in the area, as security forces remain determined to wipe out the menace of terrorism from the country.

The statement comes just a day after the Army revealed that it had eliminated as many as 27 terrorists during an IBO in Balochistan's Kacchi district.

The nation has been reeling under rising violent attacks since the Taliban rulers returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021, particularly in the bordering provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

The year 2024 turned out to be the deadliest for Pakistan's civil and military security forces in a decade with at least 685 fatalities and 444 terror attacks, according to “CRSS Annual Security Report 2024" issued by the Centre for Security and Strategic Studies.

Equally alarming were the cumulative losses of civilians and security personnel, i.e., 1,612 fatalities, accounting for over 63 per cent of the total recorded this year, marking 73% more losses compared to 934 outlaws eliminated, The News reported citing CRSS report.

The overall fatalities recorded the previous year were a record 9-year high and over 66 per cent more than in 2023. On average, nearly seven people lost their lives daily, with November emerging as the deadliest month across all metrics, compared to all other months of the year.

In 2024, the country suffered 2,546 violence-linked fatalities and 2,267 injuries among civilians, security personnel and outlaws.

This tally of casualties stemmed from 1,166 incidents of terror attacks and counter-terror operations, marking a grim year for the country’s security landscape. PTI AYZ AMS