Pakistan's military killed 30 militants in a targeted operation in South Waziristan, the military's media wing announced on Tuesday, marking one of the largest single-day operations in the country's intensifying counterterrorism campaign along its volatile Afghan border.
The intelligence-based operation was conducted on Monday in the Sararogha area of South Waziristan district, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement. Security forces are continuing to sweep the area for remaining militants.
Pakistan's army chief, Gen. Syed Asim Munir, vowed last month to bring the fight against terrorism to "a decisive end," following a series of deadly attacks on security forces and civilians.
The military has increasingly blamed Afghanistan's Taliban government for harboring militant groups, particularly the Pakistani Taliban, known locally as TTP.
"All evidence of terrorism leads to safe havens provided to terrorists on Afghan soil," military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said in December, warning Afghanistan against "prioritizing terrorists over Pakistan."
Militancy in numbers
The operation comes amid an alarming surge in terrorist violence across Pakistan, with over 1,500 attacks reported in the past ten months. Nearly two-thirds of these incidents occurred in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where South Waziristan is located.
The military said it has killed 925 militants in over 59,000 operations during 2024, the highest number in five years. However, the cost has been heavy, with 383 security personnel killed in the campaign.
The surge in violence has particularly affected Pakistan's border regions, where militant groups have exploited rugged terrain and cross-border ties with the Afghan Taliban to maintain their operations, despite intensified military efforts to root them out.
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