Eight terrorists were killed by security forces during an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s South Waziristan district, the military’s media affairs wing said on Sunday.

According to a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the IBO was conducted in the district’s Sararogha area based on the reported presence of terrorists.

“During the conduct of operation, intense fire exchange took place between own troops and terrorists as a result of which eight terrorists were sent to hell.

“The killed terrorists remained actively involved in numerous terrorist activities against security forces as well the innocent civilians. Arms, ammunition and explosives were also recovered from killed terrorists,” the ISPR said.

It added that a sanitisation operation was under way to eliminate any other terrorists found in the area as the security forces were “determined to wipe out the menace of terrorism from the country”.

On Wednesday, two soldiers were martyred after an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded on a security forces’ convoy in the Razmak area of KP’s North Waziristan district.

On Tuesday, the ISPR had said that a soldier had embraced martyrdom in an IED blast in North Waziristan, while separate IBOs in Dera Ismail Khan and South Waziristan districts had left at least three militants dead.

Pakistan has witnessed an uptick in terror activities in recent months, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, after the banned militant Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan ended its ceasefire with the government last year.

In September, data compiled by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies said the number of militant attacks in August was the highest tally for monthly strikes in almost nine years.