ISLAMABAD — Pakistani security forces killed 14 militants in a targeted overnight raid on a hideout in the country’s restive northwest, the military said Wednesday, amid a fresh wave of cross-border tensions with neighboring India.
The operation took place in North Waziristan, a volatile district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghanistan border, following intelligence about the presence of Pakistani Taliban fighters allegedly linked to what Islamabad described as an Indian proxy group.
In a statement, Pakistan’s military said the suspected insurgents opened fire during the raid, prompting a shootout that ended in the deaths of 14 militants. A post-raid “sanitization operation” was ongoing in the region to root out remaining threats, according to the military.
The Pakistani government has increasingly accused India of fueling instability within its borders by supporting banned insurgent outfits, including the Pakistani Taliban — known locally as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — and the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), both of which have carried out deadly attacks in recent years.
While New Delhi did not immediately respond to the latest allegations, Pakistani military officials maintain that such groups receive logistical and financial backing from Indian intelligence services. The military claims these efforts aim to destabilize Pakistan internally, particularly in its volatile tribal and Baloch regions.
Tensions between the two nuclear-armed rivals have escalated since May, driven in part by renewed confrontations along the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. Both India and Pakistan claim the region in full but control only parts of it. Armed skirmishes and diplomatic accusations have continued to strain relations.
The TTP, an umbrella group of Islamist militants seeking to impose strict Shariah law in Pakistan, has been emboldened since the return to power of its ideological allies, the Afghan Taliban, in Kabul in 2021. Many of its senior leaders are believed to be operating from sanctuaries within Afghanistan, adding complexity to Pakistan’s counterterrorism efforts.
Pakistan has repeatedly urged Afghanistan’s Taliban government to take action against the TTP, but cooperation between the two has remained limited.
The military did not release the names of the militants killed in Wednesday’s operation or provide further details about the Indian proxy group it alleges was involved.
The raid highlights the growing instability along Pakistan’s western frontier, where militant groups have carried out frequent attacks on security forces and civilians. The government’s latest accusations against India further raise the stakes in an already volatile regional security environment.
In recent months, Pakistan has intensified counterterrorism operations in tribal areas that were once strongholds of various jihadist factions. Wednesday’s raid is part of what military officials describe as a broader strategy to neutralize threats ahead of the country’s upcoming general elections.
With Islamabad blaming New Delhi for sponsoring proxy wars and India remaining largely silent on the allegations, the situation threatens to deepen the long-standing hostility between the two neighbors — a relationship already marred by decades of war, mistrust, and unresolved territorial disputes.
