PAKISTANI security forces raided two militant hideouts in the country’s north-west near the Afghan border and killed 15 militants, the military said today.

Troops first carried out an operation in Dera Ismail Khan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, killing 10 Pakistani Taliban, according to a military statement.

A second raid in the region’s North Waziristan district killed five more militants, the statement said.

The military identified the killed militants as “Khawarij,” a term authorities use for militants they allege are backed by Afghanistan and India, including those linked to the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) , a charge Kabul and New Delhi deny.

The Pakistani Taliban are a separate but allied group to Afghanistan’s Taliban, who have been emboldened since taking power in Kabul in 2021.

Many TTP leaders and fighters are believed to operate from sanctuaries across the Afghan border, straining relations between Islamabad and Kabul.

The TTP are thought to have been behind a suicide blast last Tuesday outside the district courts in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad where at least 12 people were killed and 27 others injured.