LAHORE, May 23: Three terrorists of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group were killed in Pakistan’s Punjab province on Friday, an official said.
A Punjab Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) statement said it received information about the presence of the terrorists in the Mianwali district, about 325 kilometres from Lahore when they were planning to attack police posts near Rehmani Khel Mor.
Acting on intelligence, a CTD team surrounded their hideout and asked the terrorists to surrender when they opened fire at them.
“During the exchange of fire, three terrorists were killed on the spot while six of their accomplices managed to escape,” the CTD statement said. The statement said two rifles and scores of bullets were recovered from the possession of the terrorists.
“The terrorists planned to attack the police posts,” the statement said.
A search operation has been launched to arrest the escaped terrorists, it said.
Pakistan has witnessed a surge in terrorist incidents, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces, following the collapse of the ceasefire agreement between the government and the TTP in November 2022.
Militant attacks and counter-terrorism operations surged in March 2025, with the number of terrorist incidents crossing 100 for the first time since November 2014, a Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies report said.
Pakistan ranked second on the Global Terrorism Index 2025, with terror-related deaths rising by 45 per cent over the past year to 1,081.
Separately, police in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Thursday night foiled an attack by over a dozen heavily armed militants on their checkpost.
The militants attacked the checkpost in the Mandan area of Bannu district and attempted to seize its control, a police official said.
The official said the police responded immediately and thwarted the attack.
The official said a constable sustained injuries in the attack and moved to the hospital for treatment.
The police, following the attack, launched a search operation to track down the militants, the official added. (PTI)
