- Security forces conduct IBO in North Waziristan’s Spinwam area.
- Sanitisation operation underway to eliminate any other terrorists.
- Weapons, ammunition recovered from killed terrorists, says ISPR.
RAWALPINDI: As part of the country’s fight to curb the menace of terrorism, security forces conducted an intelligence-based operation (IBO) on night between January 14-15 in North Waziristan’s Spinwam and gunned down four terrorists — alias khawarij.
“During the conduct of the operation, own troops effectively engaged khawarij’s location and after an intense exchange of fire,” said the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) in a statement on Wednesday.
The security forces, added the military’s media wing, also recovered weapons and ammunition from the killed militants who were actively involved in numerous terrorist activities against the security forces as well as target killing of innocent civilians.
The ISPR further said that a sanitisation operation was being carried out to eliminate any other terrorists found in the area.
The latest anti-terror operation comes a day after as many as eight terrorists were killed in two separate engagements in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Six of these militants were neutralised in an IBO in the Tank district whereas two were killed in the Khyber district’s Tirah Valley.
Prior to that, 27 terrorists were killed in an IBO in Balochistan’s Kacchi district.
With the security forces continuing their efforts to root out terrorism, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir, during his Peshawar visit, said that the hostile elements continue to suffer heavy losses, and their capacity to inflict harm would be decimated.
The army chief’s warning came against the backdrop of a surge in terrorist attacks ever since the Taliban rulers returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021, particularly in the bordering provinces of KP and Balochistan.
The year 2024 turned out to be the deadliest for Pakistan’s civil and military security forces in a decade with at least 685 fatalities and 444 terror attacks, according to “CRSS Annual Security Report 2024” issued by the Centre for Security and Strategic Studies.
The overall fatalities recorded the previous year were a record 9-year high and over 66% more than in 2023. On average, nearly seven people lost their lives daily, with November emerging as the deadliest month across all metrics, compared to all other months of the year.
The violence took the heaviest toll on KP which topped in human losses with 1,616 fatalities, followed by Balochistan with 782 fatalities. In 2024, the country suffered 2,546 violence-linked fatalities and 2,267 injuries among civilians, security personnel and outlaws.
This tally of casualties stemmed from 1,166 incidents of terror attacks and counter-terror operations, marking a grim year for the country’s security landscape.
