Three militants killed in shootout in Pakistan’s restive northwest — military

ISLAMABAD: Three militants were killed in a shootout with Pakistani security forces during an operation in the country’s restive northwest, the Pakistani military said on Sunday.
The shootout took place while the security forces were conducting an intelligence-based operation in Kulachi area of Dera Ismail Khan district, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing.
“The killed terrorists remained actively involved in various terrorist activities against security forces, police and innocent civilians,” the ISPR said in a statement.
“They were also highly wanted for conducting a raid on a Police CP (checkpost) in Kulachi on 11 April 2022, which resulted in Shahadat (martyrdom) of five brave police constables.”
Officials also recovered weapons and ammunition from the scene, the military said.
“Sanitization of the area is being carried out to eliminate any terrorists found in the area,” it added.
The development came hours after three police officers, a paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) soldier, and a militant were killed, when militants attacked a checkpost in southwest Pakistan.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but Pakistan has been witnessing an uptick in militant violence since the Pakistani Taliban, or the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), called off a fragile truce with the government in Islamabad in November.
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 appears to have emboldened the TTP.
Militant attacks have since targeted police and security forces in the country’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and southwestern Balochistan provinces that border Afghanistan.
In Balochistan, some of the attacks have also been claimed by Baloch separatist militants, who Pakistan says have been armed by the neighboring India. New Delhi denies the allegation.