ISLAMABAD: Security forces have killed a militant in an intelligence-based operation in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the military’s media wing, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), said on Friday, adding that he facilitated suicide bombings and was involved in target killings.
KP, which borders Afghanistan, has seen a surge in attacks on security forces, government officials and anti-polio vaccination teams in recent weeks. In a major attack in the province’s Bannu district, ten soldiers were killed when militants launched a coordinated attack on a military cantonment on July 15.
Islamabad blames the recent surge in attacks, including the attack on the army cantonment in Bannu, on Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a proscribed armed network, which it says operates out of neighboring Afghanistan. Kabul denies the allegations and says rising violence in Pakistan is a domestic issue for Islamabad.
“Security forces conducted an intelligence-based operation in the North Waziristan district on the reported presence of terrorists,” the ISPR said, adding that during the course of the operation, a militant named Razzaq was killed.
The slain militant was a close associate of Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a high-value target, and remained involved in numerous militant activities in the area including the target killing of Malik Sher Muhammad, a local leader, earlier this year apart from facilitating a suicide bombing in March that resulted in the killing of seven soldiers.
The ISPR said a “sanitization operation” was being conducted to eliminate any other militant found in the area, adding that the security forces remained determined to eliminate extremist violence from the country.
