PESHAWAR: At least 15 terrorists, including two armed suspects who were killed in an encounter with the police, were gunned down in different operations across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In a statement, the Inter-Services Public Rela­tions (ISPR) said 13 members of the “Indian proxy Fitna-al-Khawarij” — the state’s term for the banned Teh­reek-i-Taliban Pakistan — were killed in two separate engagements on January 13 and 14. In Bannu, the security forces effectively engaged the militants’ location and gunned down eight militants following an intense exchange of fire. The stat­e­ment read that an­other intelligence-based operation was conducted by the troops in Kurram, adding that five terrorists were killed in that operation. Meanwhile, two armed militants were killed and a policeman was injured in a shootout between the pol­ice and the militants in Dera Ismail Khan on Thursday. According to a police spok­esperson, the clash took place when the militants attacked the Khutti police check-post located within the limits of Dera Town police station on Wed­nesday night, triggering a fierce exchange of fire that left two attackers dead and a police constable injured. Despite record militant deaths, Pakistan saw a sharp escalation in militant violence in 2025, with terrorist attacks rising by 34 per cent and terrorism-related fatalities increasing by 21 per cent year on year, according to a report released by the Islamabad-based Pak Institute for Peace Studies. In a press conference last week, ISPR Director General Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry shared that law enforcement agencies of Pakistan — including the army, police, Federal Constabulary, and intelligence agencies — conducted a total of 75,175 IBOs in 2025. Breaking it down, he said 14,658 operations were conducted in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 58,778 in Balochistan, and 1,739 in other regions of Pakistan. He added that 5,397 terror incidents took place in Pakistan in 2025, of which 3,811 were reported from KP (71pc), 1,557 from Balochistan (29pc), and 29 from other areas. Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2026