Pakistan says its security forces killed 29 militants in ground operation, strikes along Afghan border

June 28, 2026 / 5:00 PM EDT

/ AP

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Pakistani security forces Sunday carried out a ground operation along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, followed by "calibrated strikes" against militant hideouts and safe havens, killing 29 fighters, officials said.In a post on X, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the operation was launched in response to multiple militant attacks across the country.It comes a day after militants armed with guns and explosives targeted the regional headquarters of the paramilitary Rangers in the southern port city of Karachi, killing three soldiers. Security forces killed three attackers and arrested another assailant, whom the military identified as an Afghan national in wounded condition.Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the Karachi attack in a statement Saturday night.Tarar said Pakistan's latest operation along the Afghan border targeted the hideouts and safe havens of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and Fitna al-Khwarij, a term Pakistan uses for the Pakistani Taliban.Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks targeting police and security forces in recent years. Authorities have blamed the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, and allied militant groups for most of the violence. The TTP is a separate militant group from the Afghan Taliban, although the two are allies. The Afghan Taliban returned to power in neighboring Afghanistan in 2021.Tarar said the security forces first conducted an intelligence-based ground operation against a group of terrorists near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Bajaur, a district in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. "As a result of precise and skillful engagement, high value Khwarji Commander Khan Farosh" was killed along with three others.