KARACHI: Pakistan’s security forces killed five militants, including a key commander, during an intelligence-based operation in the country’s northwest, the military said on Friday.
The operation, which took place in Tirah, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, comes as Pakistani authorities face increasing attacks by the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) from neighboring Afghanistan.
Earlier this week, Pakistan’s army chief, General Asim Munir, assured political stakeholders in KP that the military would not launch a full-scale operation against the TTP but would continue targeted, intelligence-based actions to counter the group.
“On 17 January 2025, Security Forces conducted an intelligence-based operation in general area Tirah, Khyber District on reported presence of khwarij [TTP militants],” the military’s media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), said in a statement.
“During the conduct of operation, own troops effectively engaged khwarij location, as a result of which, five khwarij including kharji ring leader Abidullah @ Turab, were sent to hell, while one kharji was apprehended,” it added.
The ISPR noted that weapons and ammunition were recovered after the raid.
The slain militants, including the commander, were linked to several instances of extremist violence targeting both security forces and civilians.
Tirah was a major hotbed of militant activity during the 2000s and early 2010s, serving as a stronghold for groups like the TTP, Lashkar-e-Islam and Al Qaeda-linked factions.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif praised the security forces for the successful operation, commending their efforts to combat militancy.
“The entire nation stands with our security forces in the ongoing fight against terrorism,” he said in a statement released by his office. “We are determined to eradicate terrorism in all its forms from the country.”

ISLAMABAD: More than 40 Pakistanis are feared to have drowned in the capsizing of a boat off West Africa’s Atlantic coastline, which has emerged as a primary point of departure for migrants aiming to reach Europe.
President Asif Ali Zardari expressed grief over the deaths and stressed the need for strict measures to curb human trafficking.
Zardari’s comments in a statement late Thursday came after a Spain-based migrant rights group, Walking Borders, said 50 people had died on their way to the Canary Islands and that 44 of them were Pakistanis. The group said the migrants began their journey on Jan. 2.
Pakistan said it had been informed by its embassy in Morocco that a boat carrying 80 passengers, including some Pakistanis, had set off from Mauritania and capsized near Dakhla, a Moroccan-controlled port city in the disputed Western Sahara.
Millions of people migrate to Europe each year, the vast majority using legal and regular means. Less than 240,000 people crossed borders into the continent without papers last year, according to the European Union’s border agency Frontex.
As authorities have worked to prevent migration and smuggling from countries in the Mediterranean Sea, more dangerous routes have become increasingly used. Frontex reported more than 50,000 migrants made the journey from northwest Africa to Spain’s Canary Islands in 2024, including 178 Pakistanis.
Walking Borders said in a report last week that 9,757 people had died or gone missing trying to cross to the islands, calling the route “the deadliest in the world.”
The islands are roughly 65 miles (105 kilometers) from the closest point in Africa, but to avoid security forces, many migrants attempt longer journeys that can take days or weeks. The majority last year departed from Mauritania, which is at least 473 miles (762 kilometers) from the closest Canary Island, El Hierro.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said several survivors, including Pakistanis, are staying in a camp near Dakhla. Pakistan’s Embassy in Morocco is in touch with local authorities and officials have gone to Dakhla to help survivors, according to a ministry statement.
The ministry did not say how many Pakistanis had died. Officials at the ministry were not immediately available for comment on Friday.
Hundreds of Pakistanis die every year while trying to reach Europe by land and sea with the help of human smugglers.
In 2023, an estimated 350 Pakistanis were on board an overcrowded fishing boat carrying migrants that sank off Greece. Many perished in what was one of the deadliest incidents in the Mediterranean Sea.
Pakistan says it has launched a crackdown on human traffickers.