The guns were busy again in Pakistan’s restless west. Military forces reported killing 34 militants across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan on Wednesday, in what the army described as a series of swift, intelligence-driven operations targeting two militant networks it blames, in part, on India, according to Dawn News.
Pakistan’s military media wing, ISPR, said the operations targeted groups it labels “Fitna Al Khwarij”, its official name for fighters linked to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and “Fitna Al Hindustan,” a designation it uses for militant organisations operating in Balochistan, which Islamabad accuses of receiving Indian backing. India has consistently denied such allegations.
The deadliest single engagement unfolded in Mir Ali, North Waziristan, where 12 militants were killed. Nearby, in Bannu’s Narmi Khel area, 10 more died in a separate clash. Three others were killed in Lakki Marwat following what ISPR described as an intense exchange of fire. A fourth operation near the Afghan border in North Waziristan killed one fighter, identified as an Afghan national, a detail the military specifically chose to highlight.
In Balochistan’s Zhob district, eight militants were killed in the town of Sambaza. Weapons and ammunition were recovered from the sites, ISPR said.
Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari praised the operations, calling the weapons recoveries proof of the military’s professionalism. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif echoed those words, declaring the government’s firm resolve to eradicate terrorism nationwide.
The operations are part of Pakistan’s broader Azm-i-Istehkam campaign, a sweeping military initiative launched to crush persistent insurgencies that have plagued the country’s border regions for years.
Yet the violence shows little sign of fading. Earlier this week, nine more militants, including a suicide bomber, were killed in separate operations across the same two provinces.
In Pakistan’s northwest, peace remains a distant horizon and the fighting, for now, goes on.
