Pakistan, seemingly under pressure by China, has been continuing with its so called anti-terror operations using heavy weaponry as the country’s security forces have killed 17 ‘terrorists’ in their latest operations in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The security forces involved in the operations told the local press that they attacked the terrorists after getting intelligence inputs about their presence in the Bannu and North Waziristan districts. Twelve terrorists of the Hafiz Gulbahadur group were eliminated, as security forces’ helicopters struck their compound in Baka Khel area of Bannu district.
In yet another operation that was carried out in the Hasso Khel area of Mir Ali, North Waziristan, five ‘militants’ were killed. A large cache of weapons and ammunition were seized from the militants, sources said. The forces also released images of the killed terrorists. Meanwhile, the anti-terrorists operations are still on, with reinforcements arriving for the security forces to deal with the terrorists.
A massive operation was launched against the terrorists in response to the fresh wave of attacks against security forces in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s southern districts, the reports claimed. Earlier in June, a military operation dubbed as ‘Azm-e-Istehkam’ was carried out with an aim of eliminating terrorism across the country.
The Apex Committee of National Action Plan had decided to launch ‘Azm-e-Istehkam’ to deal with the issue. At that time Pakistani media had reported that through this operation the security forces would try to eliminate extremism and terrorism from the Islamic country.
Even if it was claimed that the operation would be carried out across Pakistan, its focus remained on Balochistan and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa regions. According to records, most of the ‘terror’ attacks take place this region.
The Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) in its Q1 2024 security report claimed that at least 92% of all fatalities and 86% of attacks, including those related to terrorism and security forces operations, took place in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces.
