PESHAWAR – Seven security personnel including a Captain have embraced martyrdom in an anti-terror operation during a search operation in North Waziristan area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
According to the military’s media wing, security forces launched an IBO [intelligence-based operation] in the Gharlamai and Spera Kunar Algad of North Waziristan on Saturday.
The operation was ordered after intelligence had been received that a group of terrorists was hiding in a compound after infiltrating from across [the Afghan] border, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a brief statement.
During the operation nine terrorists were killed, it added. The bodies have been taken into custody.
In the crossfire between the army men and the terrorists, seven personnel, including an officer, sacrificed their lives in the line of duty.
The military’s media wing identified the martyred soldiers as Captain Junaid, Havaldar Amir, Havaldar Atif, Havaldar Nasir, Havaldar Abdul Razzaq, Sepoy Sammi, and Sepoy Anwar.
The area has been cleared and identification of the dead terrorists is in progress, it added.
Pakistan Army had launched a massive military operation, codenamed Zarb-e-Azb, in North Waziristan in 2014 against foreign terrorists and their local cohorts.
By the end of 2017, over 3,500 terrorists were killed and 2,108 injured in the massive military operation.
The number of those who embraced martyrdom in the defence of the country during the operation was 583.
According to ISPR, 992 terror hideouts as well as 7,599 factories for making Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and Ammo were destroyed during Op Zarb-e-Azb.
During the operation, 18,087 weapons of different caliber were recovered while 253 tons of explosive material was also destroyed.
