Five terrorists were killed in an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Khyber district on Friday, the military’s media wing said.

A statement from the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said an IBO was conducted in the district’s general area of Tirah based on the reported presence of terrorists.

It added that the security forces engaged the terrorists and as a result, five, including ringleader Abidullah aka Turab, “were sent to hell” while one was apprehended.

The ISPR said weapons and ammunition were also recovered from the slain who had remained actively involved in numerous terrorist activities in the area against the security forces, as well as killing of innocent civilians.

The ISPR added that a sanitisation operation was being conducted to eliminate any other terrorists found in the area. “The security forces of Pakistan are determined to wipe out the menace of terrorism from the country,” it concluded.

The ISPR said a day ago that security forces killed 22 terrorists and injured 18 others in various IBOs across Tirah since December 14.

“Of late, numerous terrorist incidents have occurred in general area Tirah, Khyber district against security forces as well as the innocent civilians, resulting in several casualties,” said the statement.

The ISPR added that the IBOs would continue till peace in the area was restored and the terrorists were eliminated.

Armed terrorists, affiliated with various groups, are understood to have gradually moved out of the plains of Tirah valley, taking refuge in vacant houses in the hilly terrain, as security forces fortified their positions in key locations of the valley.

Sources in the region had told Dawn that the situation in most parts of the valley was calm, with no major terror-related incident reported last month.

They said the armed terrorists, who were frequently seen in different parts of Tirah valley, had either returned to Afghanistan or shifted to the bordering Orakzai district, with some opting to “settle down” in partially damaged houses in the peripheral hilly areas to avoid public attention.

Pakistan has recently witnessed an uptick in terror activities, especially in KP and Balochistan.

Terror attacks have increased since the banned militant Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan group broke a fragile ceasefire agreement with the government in 2022.

With at least 685 members of security forces losing their lives amid a total of 444 terror attacks, 2024 turned out to be the deadliest year for the civil and military security forces of Pakistan in a decade, according to a 2024 report issued by the Centre for Research and Security Studies think-tank.

According to the ISPR director general, security forces conducted a total of 59,775 operations last year during which 925 terrorists were killed and 383 officers and soldiers were martyred.