Pakistani security forces launched raids against two hideouts used by an armed group in the volatile northwest region, resulting in intense firefights that claimed the lives of at least two soldiers and nine group fighters, according to military reports.

The operations took place on Saturday in the Mohmand and Dera Ismail Khan districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, adjacent to Afghanistan’s border.

Local police identified the fighters as members of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also referred to as the Pakistani Taliban.

The TTP, while distinct from the Afghan Taliban, remains in alliance with their counterparts who regained control of neighboring Afghanistan in August 2021, following the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO military forces after two decades of conflict.

Numerous TTP leaders and fighters have sought refuge in Afghanistan, with some even residing openly in the country since the Taliban seizure of power, which has also invigorated the Pakistani Taliban.

In a separate incident on the same day, armed fighters ambushed security forces in the Kurram district of northwest Pakistan, which shares a border with Afghanistan, but no casualties have been officially confirmed in that attack.

The Pakistani military is currently conducting operations in Kurram, an area plagued by years of violence between Sunni and Shia Muslim communities, leading to the loss of hundreds of lives and heightened regional tensions.

Since November, Kurram has been cut off after authorities sealed major roads in response to sectarian violence, resulting in critical shortages of essentials and exacerbating a humanitarian crisis.

Additionally on Saturday, an explosion outside a mosque in the northwestern city of Peshawar resulted in the death of a Muslim leader; the perpetrators of the attack remain unknown, with an investigation underway.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/15/at-least-11-people-dead-in-pakistan-after-military-raids?traffic_source=rss