ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s security forces killed 14 militants this week in the country’s volatile northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the military’s media wing said on Wednesday, as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif pledged to completely eradicate militancy from the country.

The operation comes amid a noticeable uptick in militant attacks in Pakistan, particularly in the border regions near Afghanistan.

In recent weeks, Pakistani officials have increasingly blamed India for backing the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an outlawed umbrella group of militant factions responsible for a majority of attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Islamabad refers to the TTP as Fitna Al-Khawarij, a term rooted in Islamic history that denotes an extremist sect that rebelled against legitimate authority and declared other Muslims as apostates. It also describes the group as an Indian proxy.

“On 2-3 June 2025, an intelligence-based operation was conducted by the security forces in general area Datta Khel, North Waziristan District, on reported presence of Khawarij belonging to Indian proxy, Fitna Al-Khawarij,” the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.

“During the conduct of operation, own troops effectively engaged the Indian-sponsored Khawarij location, and after an intense exchange of fire, fourteen Indian-sponsored Khawarij were sent to hell,” it added.

The ISPR said “sanitization operations” were ongoing to clear the area of any remaining militants, reaffirming the military’s commitment to “wipe out the menace of Indian-sponsored terrorism from the country.”

Prime Minister Sharif also praised the security forces for their “professional excellence” in the North Waziristan operation, saying such efforts were critical to eliminating the threat posed by what he called enemies of humanity.

“We will crush the nefarious designs of these terrorists,” Sharif said in a statement issued by his office. “With the professional capability of our security forces, we will uproot the monster of terrorism once and for all.”

He said the government and the armed forces were fully committed to ensuring the complete elimination of militant violence from Pakistan.