Army says 11 soldiers, including two officers, killed in major gunbattle in northwest Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: Nineteen militants and eleven security personnel, including a lieutenant colonel and a major, were killed in an overnight gunbattle in Pakistan’s northwestern Orakzai district, the military’s media wing said on Wednesday, in one of the deadliest clashes of this year.
Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant violence in recent years, with proscribed groups such as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the separatist Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) targeting security forces and civilians in the western provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, which border Afghanistan.
According to the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), militant attacks rose sharply in the past three months, resulting in a 46-percent increase in fatalities — including civilians, soldiers and insurgents — compared to the previous quarter.
The think tank said the year 2025 is on track to become deadlier than 2024, already the most violent year in a decade.
