The Pakistan Army has “neutralised” 11 terrorists who were involved in the weekend attack on seven security officials in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Lakki Marwat, the military’s media wing said on Tuesday.

At least seven security officials, including an army captain, were martyred after an improvised explosive device (IED) targeted their vehicle in Lakki Marwat on Sunday. Local officials had said the vehicle was on its way to the Kaichi Kamar area when it came under attack near Sultankhel village, an area bordering Punjab’s Mianwali district.

The Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) had said that 26-year-old Captain Muhammad Faraz Ilyas, a resident of Kasur, along with 50-year-old Subedar Major Muhammad Nazir from Skardu, 34-year-old Lance Naik Muhammad Anwar from Ghanchi, 36-year-old Lance Naik Hussain Ali from Ghizer, 33-year-old Sepoy Asadullah from Multan, 27-year-old Sepoy Manzoor Hussain from Gilgit, and 31-year-old Sepoy Rashid Mehmood from district Rawalpindi were martyred.

A press release issued by the ISPR today said that the security forces launched an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in Lakki Marwat on the night of June 10/11 to bring the perpetrators of the “heinous act” to justice.

“During conduct of the operation, own troops effectively engaged the terrorists’ location, as result of which 11 terrorists were successfully neutralised and sent to hell while multiple terrorist hideouts were also busted,” the military’s media wing said.

The ISPR said a sanitisation operation was being carried out to eliminate any other terrorist found in the area as “the security forces are determined to wipe out the menace of terrorism from the country.”

Pakistan has witnessed an uptick in terror activities in the past year, especially in KP and Balochistan after the banned militant Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan ended its ceasefire with the government in November 2022.

According to an annual security report issued by the Centre for Research and Security Studies, Pakistan witnessed 1,524 violence-related fatalities and 1,463 injuries from 789 terror attacks and counter-terror operations in 2023 — marking a record six-year high.

KP and Balochistan were the primary centres of violence, accounting for over 90 per cent of all fatalities and 84pc of attacks, including incidents of terrorism and security forces operations.

Last month, an army officer was martyred and three terrorists were killed during an IBO in Balochistan’s Zhob district.

In a separate incident, 17 terrorists were killed and another two were injured on May 27 in two separate operations conducted by security forces in KP.