Pakistani security forces shot and killed 74 militants across the country's rugged northwest and southwest borders over the past 10 days, military officials announced on Friday.
The coordinated tactical sweep hit insurgent cells operating along the porous Afghan frontier. Operations unfolded across two volatile provinces—Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan—as troops raided mountainous hideouts and urban redoubts.
The campaign was relentless.
In the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, infantry units swept through the Mir Ali and Orakzai districts, killing 43 fighters in intense gun battles, according to official military statements. Ground units seized large stockpiles of automatic weapons, ammunition belts, and improvised explosive assemblies abandoned inside militant compounds.
The region remains a primary operational theater for the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). While structurally separate from the Afghan Taliban that seized power in Kabul in 2021, the TTP maintains deep ideological and operational alliances with the Afghan regime. Several top commanders and armed fighters direct cross-border incursions directly from sanctuaries inside Afghanistan—a friction point that has steadily wrecked diplomatic relations between Islamabad and Kabul.
Kabul continues to push back, categorically denying charges that it harbors or equips armed factions targeting Pakistan.
Five hundred miles to the south, Pakistani soldiers killed 31 insurgents in a string of simultaneous engagements launched across Balochistan on November 3. The expansive, mineral-rich province remains locked in a violent separatist conflict waged by the rebel Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), alongside sectarian and Islamist combatants.
The fighting was fierce and close-quarter.
| Frontier Sweep Metrics | Details |
|---|---|
| Total Insurgents Neutralized | 74 militants |
| Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Operations | 43 killed (Mir Ali and Orakzai districts) |
| Balochistan Sweep (Since Nov 3) | 31 killed |
| Materiel Recovered | Automatic rifles, ammunition, explosive devices |
| Key Insurgent Factions | Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), Pakistani Taliban (TTP) |
Pakistani perimeter forces have placed forward frontier outposts on high alert as area-clearance sweeps continue through the Orakzai and Mir Ali border corridors.