Three Pakistani soldiers and three militants were martyred in a shootout in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the Pakistani military said on Sunday, amid a renewed wave of militant attacks in the South Asian country.
The exchange of fire took place in Miran Shah area of North Waziristan tribal district, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing.
Pakistani troops effectively engaged the militants, killing three of them and injuring four others.
“During intense exchange of fire, Subedar Asghar Ali (age 40 years, resident of Lakki Marwat District), Sepoy Naseem Khan (age 26 years, resident of Lakki Marwat District) & Sepoy Muhammad Zaman (age 22 years, resident of Abbottabad) having fought gallantly, embraced shahadat (martyrdom),” the ISPR said in a statement.
“Sanitization of the area is being carried out to eliminate any other terrorists found in the area.”
The development came almost a week after two Pakistani soldiers and two militants were killed in a gun battle in the same district, which had been a stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban before they were driven out of the country’s northwestern tribal region in a military offensive in 2014.
The Pakistani Taliban, or the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), are a separate entity but are allied with the Afghanistan Taliban, who took over Afghanistan in August 2021 after the withdrawal of US and NATO forces from the country.
The takeover emboldened the TTP. They unilaterally ended a cease-fire agreement with the Pakistani government in November after the failure of months-long talks with Islamabad that were facilitated by the Afghan Taliban, and have since stepped up their attacks in the count
