The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on Thursday announced that a Pakistan Army major, while undertaking an intelligence-based operation, had been martyred during a face-off with terrorists in Khyber district’s Shakas area.
In a statement, the military’s media wing said security forces had launched an intelligence-based operation in the area on the night of July 5 after receiving information about the presence of terrorists. It said Major Mian Abdullah Shah had been leading the operation from the front and spotted a group of militants while establishing “blocking positions to cut the escape routes of terrorists.”
When forces intercepted the militants, said the ISPR, a heavy exchange of fire ensued that resulted in the martyrdom of Major Shah, 33, a resident of Kohat. Subsequently, it said, forces had arrested three terrorists and their facilitators while also launching a sanitization operation to locate and eliminate any remaining terrorists in the area.
“Security forces of Pakistan are determined to eliminate the menace of terrorism, and such sacrifices of our soldiers further strengthen our resolve,” the ISPR added.
The incident comes within a day of three soldiers embracing martyrdom when a suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into their convoy in North Waziristan. It also comes three days after an Army major and soldier were martyred during an exchange of fire with terrorists in the Kech district of Balochistan.