Pakistani security forces said they killed 19 militants in raids across northwestern Pakistan, striking three militant hideouts near the Afghan border.
The military said in a statement Thursday that 14 fighters were killed in an operation Wednesday in Mohmand district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and five more were killed in raids Thursday in North Waziristan and Bannu districts. The statement described the militants as “Khwarij,” a term the government uses for the Pakistani Taliban, a group allied with but distinct from the Afghan Taliban that seized power in Kabul in 2021.
The raids followed a deadly assault on a security camp in Bannu on Sept. 2, in which the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility and six soldiers were killed. The recent operations came two days after Maj. Adnan Aslam died at a military hospital from wounds sustained in the Bannu attack. A widely circulated video showed Aslam shielding a wounded comrade during the assault, returning fire and killing an attacker before succumbing to his injuries. He has been hailed as a hero, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir attended his funeral earlier this week, officials said.
The military did not provide further operational details or identify the specific militant factions targeted beyond the term “Khwarij.” Pakistan has reported a rise in militant violence in recent months, with many attacks claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (Pakistani Taliban) and by Baloch separatist groups in the southwest. The military has stepped up clearance operations and intelligence-driven raids in border and tribal districts where militants have long operated.
Officials say operations in Mohmand, North Waziristan and Bannu are part of continuing efforts to dismantle militant networks that use rugged terrain near the Afghan border as staging grounds. Pakistani security forces have launched repeated campaigns in the region over the past decade, citing cross-border sanctuaries and the threat of attacks on security installations and civilians.
The military statement did not report any casualties among security forces in the recent raids. Independent verification of militant deaths in such operations is often limited by restricted access to the areas and the military’s control of operational information.
The raids add to mounting pressures on Pakistani authorities as they confront a complex security environment that includes insurgent attacks, sectarian violence and separatist insurgencies. Government officials have consistently linked a portion of the country’s militant violence to militants who operate across porous border regions, underscoring the ongoing challenge of securing northwestern provinces and tribal districts.