RAWALPINDI (The Thursday Times) — Two Pakistan Army soldiers were martyred and 16 terrorists were killed in intelligence-based operations in North Waziristan, the military said on Saturday.
Security forces struck hideouts of Fitna al-Khawarij, the name the state uses for the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, in Mir Ali, Datta Khel, and surrounding areas of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa district over the past 12 hours, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.
Twelve terrorists, two of them Afghan nationals, were killed in Ali Khel after fierce exchanges of fire, the ISPR said. Two more were killed in Mir Ali and another two in Datta Khel.
Havildar Asmat Ali, 43, from Swabi district, and Naik Aftab Ali, 32, from Mardan, were martyred in the fighting. The military said both men “fought gallantly” before they “rendered the ultimate sacrifice.”
Troops recovered weapons and ammunition from the dead, who the ISPR said had been involved in numerous terrorist activities, including the killing of civilians. It described them as Indian-sponsored. Sanitisation operations were under way to clear any terrorists still hiding in the area.
The military said counterterrorism operations under Azm-e-Istehkam, the campaign approved by the Federal Apex Committee of the National Action Plan, would continue at full pace to wipe out what it called foreign-sponsored terrorism.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi paid tribute to the two soldiers, saying they had given their today for the nation’s peaceful tomorrow and that their sacrifice would always be remembered. Intelligence-based operations would go on until terrorism was rooted out, he said, adding that the nation stood with its security forces.
The operations come a day after the military said it had killed 74 terrorists in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, including 35 in Mir Ali. Early on Saturday, police in neighbouring Bannu repelled an overnight attack on a checkpost and killed four terrorists.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan have borne the brunt of terrorist violence since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021. According to the Centre for Research and Security Studies, the two provinces accounted for nearly 96% of violence-related deaths in Pakistan in the second quarter of 2026, with 475 deaths in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 265 in Balochistan.
