A statement issued by the military’s media wing said on Saturday said that troops “effectively engaged the khwarij location,” 17 Indian sponsored khwarij were sent to hell. Weapons and ammunition were recovered during the operation.

It said those killed “remained actively involved in numerous terrorist activities against security forces and law enforcement agencies, as well as the killing of innocent civilians.”

A sanitisation operation is underway to clear the area of any remaining militants. Security forces reiterated their determination “to wipe out the menace of Indian-sponsored terrorism from the country.”

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Earlier this week, security forces killed 13 terrorists involved in numerous activities, including facilitating a suicide bombing, abductions, and the targeted killing of government officials and civilians, during the same operation in Dera Ismail Khan.

The ISPR said the security forces launched an intelligence-based operation on reports of the presence of terrorists belonging to the Indian proxy group ‘Fitna al Khwarij’, in Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.