23 militants killed in back-to-back Kurram operations: ISPR

Security forces killed 23 militants in two intelligence-based operations in Kurram District, the military said on Thursday. According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the operations were carried out on November 19 after reports of the presence of militants it described as belonging to the Indian-sponsored group “Fitna Al Khwarij”.

ISPR said the first engagement took place after troops picked up movement in a remote part of the district. The statement noted that an intense exchange of fire followed and twelve militants were killed.

A second intelligence input led to another operation in the same broader area where eleven more militants were “neutralised”, the military said. It added that sanitisation efforts were continuing under the wider counterterrorism campaign Azm-e-Istehkam, which was approved by the Federal Apex Committee on the National Action Plan.

Read: Terrorists attack shuts Thall-Parachinar Road

The latest action follows a series of violent incidents across Kurram this year. In January, two separate attacks targeted supply convoys on the Thall–Parachinar route, one of which left eight people dead.

The disruption to essential traffic prompted authorities to facilitate a 225-vehicle relief convoy that reached Parachinar in March after days of blocked access.

In June, four people were killed and four were injured in a roadside improvised explosive device blast near Parachinar. A militant attack in September forced the temporary closure of the same key road, underscoring the persistent security volatility in the district.

Read more: 225-vehicle convoy reaches Parachinar with food supplies

Kurram lies in a narrow valley framed by the Safed Koh mountains and connected through a network of passes that are vulnerable to weather and conflict-related closures. Parachinar serves as the district headquarters and sits close to the Afghan border, giving the area strategic weight but also exposing it to regional spillovers.

The district’s population includes Shia Turi communities in Upper Kurram and Sunni Pashtun tribes such as the Bangash in Central and Lower Kurram. Local disputes over land, access roads and security have simmered for decades and intensified during earlier phases of militancy. Although the 2018 merger of the former tribal region into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa brought administrative changes, recurring attacks on convoys and market routes show that many underlying tensions remain unresolved.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif have paid tribute to the security forces for conducting successful operations against what they termed Indian-proxy fitna al-Khwarij in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

In separate statements, both leaders praised the professionalism of the security personnel involved in the operations, which resulted in the killing of 23 militants.

They reaffirmed that the nation stands firmly behind the security forces in the fight against terrorism, stressing that the campaign will continue until the threat is eliminated.