Two soldiers martyred in exchange of fire with terrorists in Bannu

Two soldiers of the Pakistan Army embraced martyrdom during an exchange of fire with terrorists in Jani Khel area of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province's Bannu district, the military said on Saturday.

According to Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), two terrorists were also killed during the exchange of fire.

ISPR said that 40-year-old Naib Subedar Ghulam Murataza from district Bahawalpur and 41-year-old Havildar Muhammad Anwar from district Sialkot embraced martyrdom during the exchange of fire.

The military's media wing added that a sanitisation operation was being carried out to eliminate any other terrorists found in the area.

“The armed forces of Pakistan are determined to eliminate the menace of terrorism and such sacrifices of our brave soldiers further strengthen our resolve,” it added in the press statement.

Read more: Two terrorists killed in Waziristan

A day earlier, security forces killed two terrorists during an exchange of fire in North Waziristan district's Dossali area.

According to ISPR, the exchange of fire took place on Thursday. “Own troops effectively engaged the terrorists’ location and sealed all possible escape routes. During the ensuing fire exchange, two terrorists were sent to hell,” the statement added.

In recent years, the army has launched several successful operations against terrorist groups operating in different parts of the country.

These operations have been crucial in dismantling the terrorist infrastructure and eliminating the threat posed by these groups to the civilian population and security forces alike.

During his maiden press conference, on April 25, as director general of the ISPR, Maj-Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry had revealed that a total of 8,269 intelligence-based operations (IBOs) had been conducted since January as a result of which 1,535 terrorists had been killed or apprehended.

Of these, 4,040 IBOs were conducted in Balochistan, another 3,591 in K-P, 119 in Punjab and 519 operations were conducted in Sindh. On average, over 70 IBOs were being conducted daily by the army, police and LEAs since January, he continued.