Pakistani forces kill high-profile TTP militant in Punjab province

Pakistan's security forces have gunned down a high-profile militant of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Punjab province, as the government intensified its offensive against the outfit following a sharp rise in terror attacks across the country.

Based on a tip-off, the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab Police raided a TTP hideout in Khanewal, situated around 300 km from Lahore on Wednesday.

“A police team reached the spot and surrounded the militants and asked them to surrender. However, in the resultant cross-fire, a wanted militant was killed, but two others managed to flee," the CTD said in a statement.

The militant was identified as Irfanullah Afridi, a resident of Kurram district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Police have recovered a Kalashnikov rifle, two hand grenades, 11 bullets, a magazine and a TTP flag from the hideout.

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The CTD said Afridi was a wanted militant who orchestrated in a number of terror attacks across the country.

In a separate raid on Thursday, the CTD arrested two militants of the outfit, identified as Hayatullah and Wakil Khan from Rawalpindi city in Punjab province, it said.

According to the CTD, both terrorists of TTP (Haji Fakir Group) were tasked to attack Saint Paul Church, Covenant School and district courts Rawalpindi.

The latest raid by the security forces comes days after 12 TTP militants were gunned down in the country's restive northwest province in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Pakistan has been hit by a wave of terrorism, mostly in the country's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, but also in Balochistan and Punjab provinces.

During the Apex Committee meeting earlier this month, Pakistan’s civil and military leadership decided to seek Afghan Taliban chief Haibuttallah Akhundzada’s intervention to control the TTP.

In November last year, the TTP called off an indefinite ceasefire agreed with the government in June 2022 and ordered its militants to carry out attacks on the security forces.

On January 30, a Pakistani Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up in a high-security mosque in Peshawar, killing over 100 worshippers and injuring 200 others.

The TTP, set up as an umbrella group of several militant outfits in 2007, called off a ceasefire with the federal government and ordered its militants to stage terrorist attacks across the country.

The group, which is believed to be close to Al-Qaeda, has been blamed for several deadly attacks across Pakistan, including an attack on army headquarters in 2009, assaults on military bases, and the 2008 bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad.

In 2014, the Pakistani Taliban stormed the Army Public School (APS) in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing at least 150 people, including 131 students.