Two soldiers martyred, terrorist ring leader killed in Buner IBO

RAWALPINDI: As security forces continue their efforts to curb the menace of terrorism, two Pakistan Army soldiers were martyred whereas a terrorist ring leader was eliminated in an intelligence based operation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Buner district.

As per the statement released by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the IBO was conducted on the reported presence of terrorists, during which high value terrorist (HVT) Saleem alias "Rabbani" was killed, while two other militants sustained injuries in the gun battle.

The killed terrorist, Rabbani, had a Rs5 million bounty on his head and was involved in numerous terrorist activities against the security forces as well as extortion and target killings of innocent civilians, the military's media wing added.

Meanwhile, the martyred soldiers have been identified as Lance Havildar Mudassar Mehmood (age 36; resident of district Rawalpindi) and Lance Naik Haseeb Javed (age 27; resident of district Poonch, Azad Jammu and Kashmir).

Havildar Mudassar and Lance Naik Haseeb served in the Pakistan Army for 16 and five years, respectively with the latter being survived by his parents, widow and a daughter.

With the sanitisation operation underway to eliminate any other terrorists in the area, the security forces have reaffirmed their commitment to wipe out the scourge of terrorism.

Pakistan has witnessed a significant surge in terrorist incidents in recent months with KP and Balochistan accounting for over 92% of all fatalities and 86% of attacks — including incidents of terrorism and security forces operations — during the first quarter (Q1) of 2024.

These numbers were quoted in the Q1 2024 Security Report issued by the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) earlier this month.

As per the report, Pakistan witnessed 432 violence-linked fatalities and 370 injuries among civilians, security personnel and outlaws resulting from as many as 245 incidents of terror attacks and counter-terror operations. This includes 281 fatalities among civilians and security forces personnel.

Individually, KP suffered 51% and Balochistan 41% of all fatalities in Q1, 2024. The data indicated that the remaining regions were relatively peaceful, suffering less than 8% of all fatalities.

Meanwhile, civilians and security forces personnel suffered over 65% (281) of all fatalities in nearly 200 terror attacks, compared to outlaws suffering only 35% (151) in around 48 counter-terror operations in the said period, The News reported.