Twenty-two suspected members of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) were killed in an intelligence-based operation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bannu district, Pakistan’s military said on Tuesday.
According to a statement from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), security forces launched the operation on Monday after receiving reports that TTP militants were present in the area. Troops “effectively engaged the location,” the military said, and following an intense exchange of fire, 22 militants were killed. A sanitisation sweep was underway to ensure no additional fighters remained in hiding.
The ISPR declared that Pakistan’s counterterrorism campaign, carried out jointly by the military and law enforcement agencies, would continue with full force to eradicate what it called the “menace of foreign-sponsored terrorism.”
Pakistan has faced a sharp rise in militant attacks, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, since the TTP unilaterally ended its ceasefire with the government in late 2022.
The latest attack came just a day earlier, when a suicide bomber detonated himself at the entrance to the Federal Constabulary headquarters in Peshawar. Three FC personnel were killed and 12 injured. Security forces quickly responded, shooting dead two additional attackers before they could penetrate the compound, where hundreds of personnel had gathered for a weekly assembly.
Initial investigations reported by state media suggest all three attackers were Afghan nationals, heightening concerns over cross-border militant infiltration as Pakistan’s security forces intensify counterterror operations.
