Two Pakistan Army officers, four other soldiers and eight Tehreek Taliban Pakistan (TTP) men were killed in an encounter in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Hangu district on September 20, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) has said.
During an intense fire exchange between a “security forces convoy and Khwarij”, 23-year-old Captain Abuzar Farooq from Gujranwala and 22-year-old Lieutenant Sheraz Babar of Chakwal, “who were leading their troops from the front, fought gallantly and paid the ultimate sacrifice and embraced martyrdom along with their four men”, the ISPR statement said, according to a Dawn report.
According to images released by ISPR, the other four men comprised three sepoys and a “non-combatant”. On the other hand, “eight Khwarij belonging to Fitna al Khwarij were sent to hell due to effective engagement by own troops”, the ISPR statement added. The state uses the term Fitna al Khawarij for the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
A new beginning was made by the Pakistani government some months ago and it has now started blaming India for TTP attacks being carried out. This can be called weird as India has no record of ever training or arming religious Islamists against any nation.
In fact, the Pakistan government has now been blaming the Indian intelligence agencies of arming and helping the nationalist Baloch rebels also. This is a comparatively new phenomenon witnessed after the Operation Sindoor of May 2025.
After the encounter, a sanitisation operation was being conducted to eliminate any other terrorist/s found in the area, ISPR said.
It affirmed that the “relentless counter-terrorism campaign under vision ‘Azm-i- Istehkam’ (as approved by Federal Apex Committee on National Action Plan) by security forces and law enforcement agencies of Pakistan will continue at full pace to wipe out the menace of foreign-sponsored and supported terrorism from the country”.
“These sacrifices of our brave soldiers further reinforce our unwavering commitment to safeguarding our nation at all costs,” the military’s media wing stated.
Sunday’s development comes two days after an assault near a mosque in the old Police Lines of KP’s Kohat district on Friday had claimed 31 lives, including those of 17 policemen. Eight terrorists were killed during an overnight clearance operation launched to clear the area.
At least 100 people were badly injured in the Kohat attack which was carried out as a two-pronged assault. At first, an explosives-laden vehicle was detonated near a mosque in Kohat district’s old Police Lines. This was followed by several TTP men storming the compound and attacking police facilities.
Among those who had died in the Kohat attack was SP Traffic Akbar Shinwari, head of the paediatric department at DHQ Hospital Dr Israel Orakzai, and Special Branch and Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) officials.
For the past couple of years, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has witnessed a sharp rise in attacks on the security forces, be it the police or the Pakistan Army. There were more attacks in August this year compared with July, according to monthly data compiled by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS).
On August 7, a Captain had died and seven TTP men were killed during an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in Hangu.
On July 30, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) was among nine policemen killed and 28 others injured after terrorists attacked the Khazina Banda check post in Hangu. Days later, security forces claimed that they had killed the mastrmind behind the attack.
The way things stand now in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the governments, both provincial and the Federal, have little control over the province. Despite tall claims of the governments, TTP men are undeterred and have been carrying out attacks against the police and the Army repeatedly and relentlessly.
