Security forces killed 12 terrorists of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) during an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Lakki Marwat area, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.

In a statement on Wednesday, the military’s media wing said security forces and the terrorists exchanged fire on Tuesday night during which the militants were killed.

It added that the terrorists' movement and activities were being watched by intelligence agencies over the past one week and the terrorists were lured in by providing a vehicle for escape that was intercepted and neutralised.

Four policemen martyred in attack on Lakki Marwat police station

Weapons, ammunition and Afghan currency were recovered from the terrorists.

Since the TTP said they had called off a shaky ceasefire agreed with the government, Pakistan has seen an increase in terror activities.

TTP, a separate entity from the Taliban in Afghanistan, but sharing a similar ideology, has been responsible for hundreds of attacks and thousands of deaths since emerging in 2007.

Last week, an Apex committee meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif decided to engage the Taliban’s interim government in Afghanistan for a decisive and targeted operation against TTP and other militant organisations in the wake of a deadly terrorist attack in Peshawar.

In November last 2021, the former PTI government released over 100 TTP prisoners as a ‘goodwill gesture’ following several rounds of ‘peace talks’ with the militant outfit which also allowed thousands of others to return back to their towns, a move which prompted massive protests in various parts of the province.

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According to Afzal Ali Shigri, a senior security analyst, the TTP misused the ‘leniency’, with many TTP men returning from Afghanistan as a result of the ‘peace talks’ who are believed to have re-joined their armed campaign against the state. “This is another reason behind the fresh wave of terrorism in the country,” he said.