A soldier was martyred during a counter-insurgency operation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Dera Ismail Khan district on Monday, in which seven terrorists were killed, the military’s media wing said in a statement.

According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), an intelligence-based operation (IBO) was carried out in DI Khan’s Kulachi area on the reported presence of terrorists belonging to the Indian proxy Fitna al Khawarij.

Fitna-al-Khawarij is a term the state uses for terrorists belonging to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

“During the conduct of [the] operation, own troops effectively engaged the khwarij location and after an intense fire exchange, seven khwarij were sent to hell,” the statement read.

During the battle, Naik Yasir Khan, 34, a resident of Mardan, embraced martyrdom after “having fought gallantly [and] paid the ultimate sacrifice”, the ISPR said.

The statement added that weapons and ammunition were seized from the dead terrorists, who were involved in terrorist activity in the area.

“[A] sanitisation operation is being conducted to eliminate any other Indian-sponsored kharji found in the area, as the relentless Counter Terrorism campaign under vision ‘Azm-i-Istehkam’ (as approved by the Federal Apex Committee on National Action Plan) by security forces and law enforcement agencies of Pakistan will continue at full pace to wipe out the menace of foreign-sponsored and supported terrorism from the country,” the statement concluded.

Earlier, security forces killed 13 terrorists in two IBOs across KP, the military’s media wing said in a statement on Sunday.

“On 12-13 December 2025, thirteen khwarij belonging to Indian proxy Fitna Al Khwarij were killed in two separate engagements in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province,” the ISPR said in a statement.

It said that the first intelligence-based operation (IBO) was carried out on the reported presence of the terrorists in KP’s Mohmand district, while the other was carried out in Bannu.

Earlier this year, Pakistan ranked second in the Global Terrorism Index 2025, with the number of deaths in terrorist attacks rising by 45 per cent as compared to the previous year. The Global Terrorism Index 2025, published by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), provides a comprehensive summary of the key trends and patterns in terrorism over the last 17 years.

Last month, security forces eliminated 22 terrorists during an operation in the Bannu district.