Pakistan’s security forces have raided two hideouts used by an armed group in the restive northwest, triggering gun battles that killed at least two soldiers and nine of the group’s fighters, the military says.
The raids were conducted on Saturday in the Mohmand and Dera Ismail Khan districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan.
According to local police, the fighters belonged to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban.
The outlawed TTP is a separate group but an ally of the Afghan Taliban, who reseized power in neighbouring Afghanistan in August 2021 as United States and other NATO troops were in the final stages of a withdrawal from the country after 20 years of war.
Many TTP leaders and fighters have found sanctuaries and have even been living openly in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover, which also emboldened the Pakistani Taliban.
In a separate incident on Saturday, fighters ambushed security forces in northwestern Pakistan’s Kurram district, bordering Afghanistan, local police said. Authorities have yet to confirm any casualties in that attack.
Pakistan’s military is engaged in an ongoing operation in Kurram, an area that has witnessed years of violence between Sunni and Shia Muslim communities. Hundreds of people have been killed in fighting between armed groups, exacerbating tensions in the region.
Since November, Kurram has remained isolated after authorities blocked key roads following sectarian violence. The closure has led to severe shortages of medicine and food, deepening a humanitarian crisis.
Also on Saturday, a bomb exploded outside a mosque in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing a Muslim leader, local police said. It was unclear who was behind the attack, and an investigation was being conducted.
