Pakistan forces kill 17 Taliban fighters in northwest raid

KARAK, Pakistan — Pakistani security forces raided a militant hideout in the restive northwest on Friday, triggering a gunbattle that left 17 Pakistani Taliban fighters dead, police said. Three officers were wounded in the exchange, regional Police Chief Shehbaz Elahi said. He described the slain militants as Khwarij, a term authorities use for Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.

The raid in Karak followed a similar intelligence-based operation two days earlier in Dera Ismail Khan, another district in the northwest, where 13 Pakistani Taliban fighters were killed in a shootout, police said.

Pakistan's Taliban, officially Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, is a separate group from the Afghan Taliban, though allied with it. The organization has been emboldened since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in 2021, and many of its leaders and fighters are believed to have taken refuge in Afghanistan since then.

Authorities have said security forces frequently carry out such operations in the region, where militancy and cross-border dynamics have kept the northwest volatile for years. While the police provided the tally for the Karak raid, Elahi did not offer further operational details about the investigation or ongoing efforts to dismantle militant networks in the province.

The clashes underscore the persistence of militant activity in Pakistan’s restive northwestern corridor, where security forces have waged a sustained campaign against the TTP and other extremist groups despite occasional pauses in fighting. The latest violence comes as Islamabad continues to confront militant threats while navigating regional security dynamics along its western border.