ISLAMABAD: Security forces have gunned down five Pakistani Taliban militants in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, the Pakistani military said on Sunday, amid a surge in militancy in the region bordering Afghanistan.
The militants were killed in an intelligence-based operation in KP’s Lakki Marwat district, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing.
“Weapons and ammunition were also recovered from killed Indian-sponsored Khwarij (militants), who remained actively involved in numerous terrorist activities in the area,” the ISPR said in a statement.
New Delhi did not immediately respond to the Pakistani military statement.
Earlier this week, six militants were killed in an encounter with counter-terrorism department (CTD) personnel in the same district, according to police. The militants were killed hours after six policemen were killed when a roadside blast hit their vehicle in Lakki Marwat.
Pakistan has struggled to contain a surge in militant attacks in KP, which borders Afghanistan, by the Pakistani Taliban, who have mounted assaults since the Afghan Taliban’s return to power in 2021.
Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of allowing the use of its soil and India of backing militant groups for cross-border attacks against Pakistan. Kabul and New Delhi deny this.
Last month, Pakistan conducted air strikes against what it said were Pakistani Taliban and Daesh targets in Afghanistan, provoking the Afghan side to retaliate across their shared border. The two neighbors have since been locked in a conflict.
