Pakistan Military Kills 44 Militants Amid Surge in Attacks

Security forces in Pakistan killed 44 militants during intelligence-based operations and clashes across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan on July 29, 2026. The Inter-Services Public Relations reported that 24 militants from the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) were killed in the Khyber district, while eight members of the Balochistan Liberation Army and other groups were killed in Nushki. A separate police operation in Swat killed four suspected militants, and security forces killed eight attackers during a repelled assault on a police checkpoint in Hangu.

Concurrent militant violence targeted both security officials and civilians. In Balochistan, gunmen killed Deputy Superintendent of Police Mureed Bugti and several laborers. In the Kech district, attackers killed one laborer and abducted six others, while four construction firm employees were kidnapped in Khuzdar. In Hangu, a militant attack on a police post killed at least three officers and wounded two dozen others.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif commended the military's actions as part of the Azm-e-Istehkam counterterrorism campaign. The government continues to accuse the Taliban-led administration in Afghanistan of providing sanctuary to TTP militants, a claim Kabul denies. Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti confirmed that search operations are ongoing to hunt down perpetrators of the attacks in the Rakhni area.