Pakistani security forces raided a militant hideout in the restive northwest near the Afghan border, killing nine militants, the military said.
The military said in a statement on Monday that a high-value militant whom it identified as Shireen was among the insurgents killed in Dera Ismail Khan, a city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Shireen was behind last month's killing of army Captain Hasnain Akhtar, who died during a shootout in the region, the military said.
All the militants were "Khwarij", a phrase the government uses for Pakistani Taliban, the military added.
The Pakistani Taliban are known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. The group is different from the Taliban in Afghanistan, but an ally, and has been emboldened since the Afghan Taliban seized power there in 2021.
More than 190 people, mostly soldiers, have been killed in attacks since the start of the year by armed groups fighting the government in both Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
‘All deals are off’
Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks, most claimed by TTP.
Pakistan often accuses Kabul of not doing enough to combat militant activity across the border, a charge the Afghan Taliban-led government denies, saying it does not allow anyone to carry out attacks against any country.
On Monday, Mohammad Sadiq, Pakistan's special representative for Afghanistan, urged Kabul to stop TTP from carrying out attacks inside Pakistan, saying Afghanistan should work with us on the issue of combating terrorism.
"Afghanistan has to work with us on this. If they are not working on this, then all deals are off," Sadiq warned during televised remarks at a seminar in the capital of Islamabad.
Though Pakistan often conducts operations against the militants, the latest raid in Dera Ismail Khan came a day after troops killed eight militants in the northwestern North Waziristan district as they tried to cross the border with Afghanistan.
Separatist terrorists in Balochistan escalate attacks as Pakistan grapples with a complex web of insurgency, regional tensions, and internal divides threatening its stability.
