KARACHI: Two suspected militants from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) were killed in an intelligence-led security operation in Karachi, police said Thursday, amid growing concerns about the outfit’s efforts to regroup in urban centers across the country.

The TTP, also known as the Pakistan Taliban, has operated in the southern port city for over a decade, often in coordination with sectarian or ethnic militant outfits. The group has been linked to a series of high-profile attacks, including the 2014 assault on Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport and the 2023 siege of the Karachi Police Office. In addition to violence, the network is known to engage in extortion, targeted assassinations and intimidation campaigns in the city.

The latest operation, carried out jointly by the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of Sindh Police and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), took place in the Askani area of Karachi’s Keamari district after authorities said they received “reliable intelligence” regarding a plot to carry out “subversive activities.”

“Two terrorists affiliated with the banned organization Fitna Al-Khawarij (TTP) were neutralized in the gunfight,” CTD official Mazhar Mashwani told Arab News, adding that the identification of the militants was ongoing through biometric and intelligence verification.

Security forces recovered a pistol, a Kalashnikov rifle, explosives and a suicide vest from the site of the operation. The vest was later defused by a bomb disposal unit, Mashwani added.

Criminal cases are being registered under anti-terrorism and explosives laws at the CTD Police Station.

Though large-scale security operations have weakened the TTP’s organizational infrastructure in Karachi, police officials say sleeper cells remain active, often operating in alliance with other militant groups.

Pakistan has experienced a sharp increase in militant violence since November 2022, when a fragile truce between the state and the TTP collapsed. While the violence has been most intense in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces, the presence of TTP-linked cells in Karachi, the country’s commercial capital, remains a serious security concern.

Islamabad has repeatedly accused Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government of sheltering TTP leaders and fighters involved in cross-border attacks, though Kabul denies the allegation and insists Pakistan address its own internal security challenges.