The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) on Tuesday claimed to have killed at least eight terrorists who were involved in attacks on Customs officials in Dera Ismail Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. One of the most-wanted terrorists, Jahanzaib, was also among those killed in the operation conducted on Monday in the KP district, the CTD said in a statement.
The dead terrorists, according to the statement, were also involved in extortion and attacks on security forces as well as target killing. The terrorists were present in the district with plans to cause sabotage, it added.
“The escape routes of the terrorists were blocked,” the CTD said, adding that there is a fear of the presence of facilitators of terrorists in the local population. “Strict action is also being taken against the facilitators,” the agency maintained.
Last weekend, two officials of Customs were gunned down in an attack near York Toll Plaza in DI Khan, while four others sustained injuries in the gun attack. This attack came just days after a previous one on April 18, during which six people, including five customs officials, were killed in a firing incident on the Sago Road in Daraban tehsil of the district.
According to the statistics issued by the Department of Interior and Tribal Affairs KP, the areas most affected by terrorism include Peshawar, Khyber, Bajaur, Tank, Dera Ismail Khan, North Waziristan and South Waziristan. Key findings of the Q1 2024 Security Report issued by the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) revealed that KP and Balochistan provinces accounted for over 92% of all fatalities and 86% of attacks in the country including incidents of terrorism and security forces operations. Individually, KP suffered 51% and Balochistan 41% of all fatalities in Q1, 2024. The data indicates that the remaining regions were relatively peaceful, suffering less than 8% of all fatalities.
