Is Pakistan's Suicidal Anti-Terrorism Operation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa a Military Operation Or a Political Misadventure?

By S. Arshad, New Age Islam 25 September 2025 Pakistan army has been conducting an intelligence based limited operation against the TTP and its affiliates in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where Imran Khan's PTI is in power since August 2025 Main Points: 1. 24 civilians killed in army bombing in Tirah valley in Pakistan. 2. Army said explosives hidden by terrorists had exploded. 3. Tribals said army fighter jets dropped Chinese bombs on a village. 4. KP government has announced Rs 1 crore compensation for every victim. 5. No government statement has come as yet. ----- The Pakistan army has been conducting an intelligence based limited operation against the TTP and its affiliates in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where Imran Khan's PTI is in power since August 2025. Since it was an intelligence based limited operation, it was supposed to be targeted against the terrorists and their hideouts. But to the contrary, the Pakistan army has been making combing operations in different districts of the state like Bannu, North and South Waziristan and Tirah. The army has instructed the local population of the targeted districts or towns to evacuate the areas and take shelter in camps where food and other basic necessities are not provided. After the army claims to have cleared an area, the people are told to go back to their villages and towns. Then the army tells the civilians of another town to evacuate and carries out attacks against the terrorists hiding in that area. In this manner, many towns have been evacuated and people have been suffering in the crossfire. So far the Pakistani security forces and the police have lost dozens of their personnel in this so-called limited operation without much success. Last week, the army post in Bannu was attacked by the TTP and about a dozen soldiers were killed. In Dir, 7 soldiers were killed by the TTP. Banks have been looted and set on fire; police stations and checkposts have been attacked. Many police personnel have been killed or abducted in this battle. Therefore, frustration among the army rank and file has been rising and out of frustration, the army has been carrying out random attacks on villages killing women and children. In South Waziristan, the army conducted drone attacks on a village killing children an women last month. The people protested with the dead bodies of children. The authorities promised to the villagers that the mistake will not be repeated. After that the villagers put off their protests. But the security forces have been killing innocent civilians in the name of intelligence based operation. The latest massacre by the Pakistani army of its own people occured in the Tirah valley of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on the night of September 22. According to the tribal witnesses, the army JF-17 fighters dropped Chinese made bombs on a village named Bara killing at least 24 people including women and children. The massacre sparked large scale protests and condemnation in the state. The army issued a statement blaming the deaths on the explosives stored in two houses of the village that exploded. But the tribals have rejected the army's theory. The local MPA, Abdul Ghani Afridi showed the pieces of bombs to the media and demanded a clarification on the issue. He was the sole government representative who visited the village. It is obvious that the bombs were dropped on wrong information. And this has happened earlier as well. The army has conducted drone attacks on women and children before as well. A couple of weeks ago, an Afghan minister had rightly said that Pakistan's security apparatus is weak which has goven rise to terrorism in the country. The Tirah massacre has proven him right. Interestingly, the massacre of children and women occurred a day after Pakistan's foreign minister Khwaja Asif delivered a lecture on the rights of women in the UN. This is not the first time that Pakistan army has massacred its own people in the same Tirah valley. On 10 April 2010, its fighter jets had pounded the Sara Viala village in Tirah valley. Pak major Athar Abbas had claimed that 40 militants of Lashkar-e-Islam headed by bus conductor-turned terrorist Mangal Bagh had been killed but the tribals soon told the world that the army had killed 70 civilians, including women and children. After a week, on 17 April, Pak General Ashraf Kayani had publicly acknowledged that the army killed civilians by mistake and apologised to the people. He also said that the army had been instructed to be cautious in future. A compensation of Rs 2 crore for the next of kin of the victims was announced. But the massacre in Tirah again shows that the army has not learnt a lesson from its mistakes. The Tirah valley of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has not suffered only two massacres but has also been pounded by the US drones in 2010 during the US' war on terror of which Pakistan was a part. By dropping bombs with drones, the US tested and perfected its newly developed drone technology and Pakistan got funds from the US in return for the permission to kill its own people. The US drones killed more civilians than terrorists in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Swat, Tirah and Waziristan bore the brunt of the so -called war on terror which ironically culminated into the Doha agreement between the US and Taliban mediated by Pakistan where the US agreed to hand over the power of Afghanistan to the Taliban. Today, the Pakistan army is fighting the offshoot of the Taliban in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and has killed more civilians than the terrorists of the TTP and Lashkar-e-Islam. In 2010, the army killed 70 civilians of Tirah valley while choosing to spare Mangal Bagh who was cosily hiding in his den just 15 kilometres from Peshawar. On September 22, 2025, the Pak army bombed a village killing 24 civilians while sparing Noor Wali Mahsood or other leaders of the TTP. The ISI stalks and kills journalists and human rights activists of Balochistan living in asylum in European countries but fails to kill the leaders of terrorist organisations of Pakistan. Therefore, the way the Pak army and federal government has dealt with the terrorist organisations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan has raised more questions than presented answers. The Pak army has been behaving like the Israeli army which has been compelling the Gazans to move from one place to another and killing civilians in the name of killing militants. It seems that the Pak army is creating an impression of a civil war in the province by killing civilians and displacing the population. In this context, Imran Khan's accusation that the operation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was a false flag operation gains weight. He had said on X last week that the operation by the Pak army and the federal government was launched to make the PTI government unpopular and to pit Afghanistan against Pakistan. Today, when the news that Trump wants to use Pakistan to get back the control of Bagram Air Base from Taliban has been doing the rounds, the picture is getting clearer. Pakistan has been harbouring terrorists and terrorist organisations since the 80s and both the TTP and the PML have used the terrorist organisations to win elections. Now that the TTP has gone with the PTI, the PML-N has turned against it and has turned the entire Khyber Pakhtunkhwa a battlefield. Now, the religious organisations and mullahs of Punjab are issuing fatwas against the TTP declaring them the religious outcastes or the Kharijites. But it is these organisations and mullahs who had been calling them mujahideen and flag-bearers of the Islamic caliphate. Now, the innocent people of Pakistan are suffering the consequences of the double standards and hypocrisy of the extremist clergy of Pakistan. ---- S. Arshad is a columnist with NewAgeIslam.com. URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-terrorism-jihad/pakistan-suicidal-terrorism-khyber-pakhtunkhwa-military/d/136973 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism