The Pakistan Army has killed twelve suspected members of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), known as the Pakistani Taliban, in an operation in Lakki Marwat province in northern Pakistan.
Security forces and the suspected terrorists reportedly exchanged gunfire during a raid by the intelligence services on Tuesday night, as reported by the newspaper ‘Dawn’.
«The movement and activities of the terrorists were being watched by intelligence tentacles for the past one week. The terrorists were lured by providing an escape vehicle that was intercepted and neutralized,» explained a statement quoted by the newspaper.
The military, who are carrying out a «clean-up operation» in the area, have also recovered weapons and ammunition which were in the possession of the TTP members.
According to the Pakistani authorities, the members of the armed group, who were allegedly heading to the locality of Tank to carry out an attack, had killed six policemen in an attack perpetrated in December 2022, indicated the Geo TV channel.
Pakistani security forces have stepped up operations against the TTP in recent weeks after the armed group announced in late November the end of a ceasefire with Pakistani authorities amid contacts being brokered by the Afghan Taliban following their seizure of power in Afghanistan in August 2021.
The TTP group, which differs from the Afghan Taliban in organizational matters but follows the same rigorist interpretation of Sunni Islam, brings together more than a dozen Islamist militant groups operating in Pakistan, where they have killed some 70,000 people in two decades of violence.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
