Two soldiers were martyred and as many terrorists killed during an exchange of fire in the Janikhel area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bannu district on Saturday, according to a statement issued by the military’s media affairs wing.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said security personnel “effectively engaged the terrorists’ location” during the gun battle, as a result of which “two terrorists were sent to hell”.

Meanwhile, the ISPR added, 40-year-old Naib Subedar Ghulam Murataza, a resident of Bahawalpur district, and 41-year-old Havildar Muhammad Anwar, a resident of Sialkot district, “having fought gallantly, embraced shahadat (martyrdom)”.

Sanitisation of the area was being carried out to eliminate any other terrorists found there, the ISPR said, adding that the “armed forces of Pakistan are determined to eliminate the menace of terrorism and such sacrifices of our brave soldiers further strengthen our resolve”.

In a similar incident earlier this week, two terrorists were killed by security forces during an intelligence-based operation in the general area of North Waziristan’s Dossali in KP.

The same day a soldier deployed to provide security to polio teams was martyred in an attack by terrorists in North Waziristan’s Spinwam area.

Pakistan has seen an uptick in terror activities, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, after the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) ended its ceasefire with the government in November.

In his maiden press briefing last month, ISPR Director General Maj Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said that at least 293 people were martyred and 521 were injured in 436 terrorist incidents over the past year.

In KP, 192 people were martyred in 219 terror activities, while 80 people lost lives in 206 incidents in Balochistan, 14 people in five attacks in Punjab, and seven in six terrorism incidents across Sindh.

He had said that the army and law enforcement agencies carried out 8,269 intelligence-based operations during the previous year in which 1,378 suspected terrorists were apprehended and 157 were killed.

The DG ISPR had also said that overall 137 security personnel were martyred and 117 injured in anti-terror operations in the ongoing year.