ISLAMABAD: Two Pakistani soldiers and two militants were killed in a shootout in northwest Pakistan late Sunday, the Pakistani military said, amid increasing militant violence in the South Asian country.
The two sides exchanged gunfire in the North Waziristan district of Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing said.
The shootout left two militants dead, while two others were injured.
“During intense exchange of fire, Naik Zaheer Abbas (age 38 years, resident of Khushab District) and Lance Naik Mairaj Ud Din (age 23 years, Resident of Dera Ismail Khan District), having fought gallantly, embraced Shahadat (martyrdom),” the ISPR said in a statement.
“Sanitization of the area is being carried out to eliminate any other terrorists found in the area.”
The development came a day after the Pakistani Taliban, or the TTP claimed responsibility for an attack in the Bannu district of the same province that left two soldiers and two militants dead.
TTP spokesman Mohammad Khorasani said the group carried out the “joint attack” in collaboration with another faction of the Pakistani Taliban, the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group. The militant group has been distancing itself from the TTP and carrying out attacks independently.
The Pakistani Taliban are a separate entity but are allied with the Afghanistan Taliban, who took over Afghanistan in August 2021 after the withdrawal of US and NATO forces from the country.
The takeover emboldened the TTP. They unilaterally ended a cease-fire agreement with the Pakistani government in November and have since stepped up their attacks in the country.
