IS-K network dismantled in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

PESHAWAR (Pajhwok): A network of the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) terrorist group has been dismantled in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.

A top Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) official told reporters here on Wednesday IS-K had started becoming active in the province after May this year.

The militant outfit wanted to sow fear and disrupt investments in the province by attacking police personnel and polio security staff, DIG Javed Iqbal said.

But CTD successfully thwarted the IS-K’s plans to carry out major terrorist attacks in the province, the official added.

Major operations against the group were conducted across the province this year, leading to the arrest of 599 terrorists and killing of 110 others.

In a joint operation, Iqbal said, Peshawar police and CTD personnel killed three top IS-K terrorists and detained several others. “Three IS-K groups were bust in Peshawar and one in Bannu.”

With the help of intelligence agencies, CTD arrested the terrorists involved in a suicide attack on Chinese engineers, the DIG revealed.

During the first year of its operations in former tribal areas, CTD killed nine terrorists in three encounters in Khyber, South and North Waziristan districts.

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