RAWALPINDI — Pakistan's security forces killed 16 militants in a series of intelligence-based operations in North Waziristan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa over the past 12 hours, while two soldiers were killed in the fighting, the military's media wing, ISPR, said in a statement on Saturday, November 14.
According to the ISPR statement, troops engaged multiple militant hideouts in the general areas of Mir Ali, Datta Khel, Ali Khel and their surroundings. Twelve militants were killed in the Ali Khel area, including two Afghan nationals, and two militants each were killed in Mir Ali and Datta Khel, taking the total to 16. Weapons and ammunition were recovered, and clearance and sanitisation operations were continuing in the area, the statement said.
Source: APP report of ISPR statement via Tez Khabar
The ISPR described the dead as members of 'Fitna al-Khawarij' — the term Pakistan's military uses for the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — and described the group as Indian-sponsored. That sponsorship description is the military's own characterisation; India has in the past rejected such allegations, and no independent evidence on the point was presented in the statement.
Two soldiers named; prime minister pays tribute
The two soldiers killed were named as Havildar Asmat Ali, 43, a resident of Swabi district, and Naik Aftab Ali, 32, from Mardan district. The ISPR said both fought gallantly during the intense exchanges of fire.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif commended the security forces for the operations in Mir Ali, Datta Khel and surrounding areas, paid tribute to the two soldiers, and said operations would continue until terrorism is completely eliminated from the country, the PM Office said in a statement carried by the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP).
Source: APP — PM commends security forces
Second major ISPR operation statement in two days
Saturday's statement follows a major operation announced a day earlier, in which the military said 74 militants were killed in operations across Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The ISPR presented the North Waziristan actions as a continuation of that series of intelligence-based operations along Pakistan's western border districts.
On Friday the military said 74 militants had been killed in Balochistan and KP operations — Saturday's North Waziristan toll is the next chapter of the same campaign. Read: 74 militants killed in Balochistan and KP operations, ISPR said
North Waziristan, a mountainous district bordering Afghanistan, was for years a stronghold of militant groups before a major military offensive in 2014 displaced much of the population. Militant attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have risen again in recent years, and operations in the border districts have become a near-daily feature of Pakistan's security landscape.
For Pakistan, the operations also carry a diplomatic charge: Islamabad has repeatedly accused Kabul of allowing TTP fighters to operate from Afghan soil and New Delhi of backing them — accusations both governments deny. The presence of two Afghan nationals among Saturday's dead, as the ISPR reported it, is likely to feed that argument in the days ahead.
The tolls, locations and the soldiers' names come from the ISPR's own statement, carried by APP and multiple Pakistani outlets. ISPR descriptions of the dead militants' affiliations and sponsorship are the military's characterisations and are reported here as attributed claims.