Peshawar: Eleven soldiers and nineteen militants of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) were killed in an intelligence-based operation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Orakzai district, the Pakistan military said on Tuesday.
According to a statement from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), security forces launched the operation on the night of October 7–8 following reports of the presence of terrorists linked to “Fitna al-Khawarij,” a term used for the TTP.
During the fierce exchange of fire, 19 militants were “sent to hell,” the ISPR said, adding that 11 soldiers — including a Lieutenant Colonel and a Major — lost their lives in the line of duty. A sanitisation operation is underway to clear the area of any remaining terrorists, it added.
Pakistan has witnessed a sharp rise in militant violence, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, since the TTP ended its ceasefire with the government in November 2022 and resumed attacks on security forces and law enforcement agencies.
As per recent data from the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa remained the most affected region in the third quarter of 2025, accounting for nearly 71 per cent (638) of all violence-related deaths and over 67 per cent (221) of the reported incidents.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan — both sharing porous borders with Afghanistan — together witnessed more than 96 per cent of the total violence across Pakistan, the report noted.
