PESHAWAR: Nine terrorists were killed in two encounters with security forces in North Waziristan district on Sunday, the military’s media wing said.

The terrorists, according to a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), were killed during intelligence-based operations (IBO).

Security forces effectively engaged the terrorists’ hideout killing six of them while two others were arrested in the Dosalli area.

The other IBO was carried out in the Esham area, it said, adding that three terrorists were killed while two others injured in the gunfight.

Security forces recovered weapons and ammunition from the deceased who, acco­rding to the ISPR, remained involved in numerous terrorist activities against security forces besides killing innocent civilians.

Militants focusing their activities in KP’s southern districts, security briefing told

The statement read that sanitisation operations were being conducted to eliminate any other outlaws found in the area, as the security forces were determined to wipe out the menace of terrorism from the country.

In a similar operation carried out on the reported presence of militants in the Maddi area of Dera Ismail Khan on Jan 10, security forces had killed five militants, including their ringleader Shafiullah alias Shafi.

On Jan 2, senior police officials, during a briefing on the security situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, told the KP Assembly members that alth­ough, the law and order situation was volatile across the province, militants were focusing on southern districts due to their proximity with Afghanistan and a ‘still int­act’ network across the border.

The lawmakers were told that the reason why militants had been focusing on the southern districts, including Dera Ismail Khan, Tank, Bannu and Lakki Marwat, was that they had safe havens in those areas.

The meeting, chaired by KP Assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati, was attended by lawmakers mostly from the merged districts and parliamentary leaders of all political parties in the house.

Sources privy to the meeting said that the lawmakers were given a presentation on the prevailing law and order situation, operations carried out against the militants, and the capacity of the police force to fight them.

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2025