LAHORE: Punjab Police have killed 10 terrorists after a violent gun battle in the hilly Mala Khel area of Mianwali, a police spokesman said on Thursday.
The spokesperson said that a police team headed by DPO Mianwali Akhtar Farooq conducted an operation over the presence of 10 to 15 terrorists.
During the raid, the terrorists opened fire on the police team, resulting in 10 of them being killed by the officers.
Pakistan has seen a surge in armed attacks since the Taliban government returned to power in neighboring Afghanistan in 2021, mostly in the northwestern border province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but also in southwestern Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran.
Islamabad accuses Kabul’s interim rulers of failing to eliminate militants who are taking shelter on Afghan soil while preparing to launch attacks on Pakistan.
It is against this backdrop that the Federal Cabinet in June this year approved Operation Resolve, a revitalized national counter-terrorism campaign in the wake of the recommendations of the Central Central Committee under the National Action Plan to Eradicate Terrorism.