A total of 74 people have been killed in separate intelligence-based operations by security forces in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces, the country’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement on Friday.
“Security forces are conducting a series of intelligence-based operations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to eliminate the terrorist threat and dismantle the networks of the khawarij,” the ISPR said. Khawarij is the term Pakistan’s military uses for the Pakistani Taliban and allied groups.
According to the statement, 35 people were killed in the Mir Ali area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and eight in Orakzai district over the past 48 hours, in heavy clashes between security forces and armed groups. Large quantities of weapons, ammunition and explosives were recovered in the operations.
The ISPR said a further 31 people had been killed in operations in Balochistan since 3 November, in raids on several hideouts of armed groups. Weapons and explosives were recovered.
Operations and searches are continuing in the areas concerned, the ISPR said, and security forces will press on with their operations to eliminate terrorism from the country.
Separately, a report by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) said there were 49 armed attacks across the country from 30 October to 5 November, up from 31 the week before. Those attacks killed 25 people and injured 21.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report