[H1]Over 400 killed in Pakistan as military intensifies operations in KP and Baluchistan[/H1]
The Pakistani military says that army, police, intelligence and other law enforcement agencies are carrying out more than 100 operations daily against terrorism in the country.
Major-General Ahmed Sharif, a spokesperson for Pakistan's military, said during a live broadcast news conference Tuesday that security forces have conducted 13,135 small and major intelligence-based operations so far this year against terrorists and their facilitators, "during which 249 terrorists were sent to hell while 396 were arrested."
VOA reached out to Pakistan military media wing Inter Services Public Relations official Brigadier Ghazanfar via WhatsApp seeking further details on the military operations in the region, but he has not responded.
Asif Durrani, Pakistan's special representative for Afghanistan, told a gathering organized by the Institute of Regional Studies on Tuesday that there has been a 60% increase in terrorist attacks in Pakistan since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021.
Haq Nawaz, a Peshawar-based analyst, said Pakistan lacks a clear strategy to combat terrorism.
"Pakistan has adopted both the dialogue and military operations strategy in the past, but terrorism is on the rise in Pakistan and Pakistan's military and political forces should work together to devise a new strategy," he said.
The Center for Research and Securities Studies (CRSS), an Islamabad-based think tank tracking terrorism in Pakistan, has said that terror-related fatalities surged 17% in the first quarter of 2024 compared with the corresponding period in 2023.
The report says 432 people were killed and 370 others were injured in the first three months in 245 attacks and military operations. The provincewise breakdown is not yet available, but CRSS says that 92% of the violence occurred in KP and Baluchistan.
Four terrorists were killed and a soldier embraced martyrdom during an exchange of fire in Tirah Valleyโs Bagh area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwaโs (KP) Khyber district, the militaryโs media affairs wing said on Sunday.
According to a press release issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), a fire exchange between the security forces and terrorists took place on August 9 at three different locations in the Tirah Valley.
โAt one of the locations in Bagh, Lieutenant Uzair Mehmood Malik, leading his troops from the front, fought bravely and sent four Khawarij to hellโ, the statement said.
โHowever, during an intense fire exchange, the officer got critically injured and was under treatment at CMH Peshawar. Today he succumbed to injuries and embraced Shahadat.โ
The statement added that the security forces of Pakistan were determined to eliminate the menace of terrorism from the country.
โSuch sacrifices of our brave officers and soldiers further strengthen our resolve,โ It said.
While it wasnโt mentioned in the statement which terrorist group was involved in the attack, ISPR Director General (DG) Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry had said last week that the government recently notified Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) as โFitna al-Khawarijโ.
โFrom now on, we will use the term Fitna al-Khawarij to refer to the TTP, while all terrorists associated with the group would be termed khariji or khawarij (outcasts)โ, he said.
โThis is because it is a mischief-making group; itโs neither an ideology nor has anything to do with Islam or Pakistan,โ he asserted.
He said that 139 soldiers embraced martyrdom during the first seven months of the year.
According to an annual security report issued by the Centre for Research and Security Studies, Pakistan witnessed 1,524 violence-related fatalities and 1,463 injuries from 789 terror attacks and counter-terror operations in 2023 โ marking a record six-year high.
KP and Balochistan were the primary centres of violence, accounting for over 90 per cent of all fatalities and 84pc of attacks, including incidents of terrorism and security forces operations.
In June, the security forces โneutralisedโ 11 terrorists who were involved in the attack on seven security officials in Khyber Pakhtunkhwaโs Lakki Marwat.
An army officer was martyred and three terrorists were killed during an IBO in Balochistanโs Zhob district in May.
In a separate incident, 17 terrorists were killed and another two were injured on May 27 in two separate operations conducted by security forces in KP.