Security forces killed 16 militants in North Waziristan during the last 12 hours, the military said on Saturday, in a fresh round of intelligence-based operations that also left two soldiers dead. Twelve of the militants were killed in Ali Khel, including two Afghan nationals, while two each were killed in Mir Ali and Datta Khel, according to a statement from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR). The two soldiers who embraced martyrdom were Havildar Asmat Ali, 43, from Swabi, and Naik Aftab Ali, 32, from Mardan.
The statement said troops engaged several hideouts of what the military calls Indian-sponsored Fitna-al-Khawarij in the general areas of Mir Ali, Datta Khel and Ali Khel and their surroundings. Weapons and ammunition were recovered from the dead militants, who the ISPR said had been involved in attacks on civilians. Sanitisation operations were under way to clear any remaining militants from the area.
The ledger: 90 in two days, from two statements
The 16 come a day after the military announced 74 militants killed in operations across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan on Friday. That statement counted 43 killed in KP over 48 hours, 35 in Mir Ali and eight in Orakzai, and 31 killed in Balochistan since 3 November in the Kurram area of Quetta district. Added together, the two statements put the toll at 90 in two days, though the figures come from separate announcements and cover different places and timeframes.
The two statements differ in one important respect. Friday’s announcement reported no soldier deaths. Saturday’s names two martyred soldiers, which makes it the first of the pair to record losses on the security forces’ side. The ISPR said the counterterrorism campaign under Azm-e-Istehkam, approved by the Federal Apex Committee on the National Action Plan, would continue at full pace.
Ali Khel carries the toll this time
Twelve of the 16 were killed in Ali Khel, which makes one locality the centre of Saturday’s fighting. Friday’s KP toll was spread across Mir Ali and Orakzai, while Saturday’s is concentrated in Ali Khel, with two each in Mir Ali and Datta Khel. The statement does not say how the fighting in Ali Khel began or how long each engagement lasted, only that it took place during the last 12 hours.
The concentration matters because North Waziristan has been the focus of repeated operations this year. An earlier operation against mosque hideouts in Mir Ali covered one of the same areas named in Saturday’s statement. The district borders Afghanistan, and two of Saturday’s dead were Afghan nationals, according to the ISPR.
Two Afghan nationals among the dead
The ISPR said two of the 12 killed in Ali Khel were Afghan nationals belonging to Fitna-al-Khawarij. The statement again used the military’s label of Indian-sponsored for the group, and said its members had been involved in the killing of innocent civilians. The nationalities and the sponsorship claim come from the ISPR alone and have not been independently verified.
The detail still matters. Attacks in KP and Balochistan together accounted for nearly 96 percent of violence-related deaths in Pakistan in the second quarter of 2026, according to data from the Centre for Research and Security Studies cited by The News. The same data put KP as the worst-affected province. Saturday’s statement does not change that picture, but it shows the fighting in the north is continuing at the same pace a day after Friday’s large announcement.
The same night in Bannu
While the army pressed its operations in North Waziristan, police in neighbouring Bannu district fought off an attack on a police checkpost around midnight on Friday. Four attackers were killed when they stormed the Kingar Pul checkpost, police said, and officers recovered four Kalashnikov rifles, magazines, ammunition, hand grenades and bandoliers. The Rapid Response Force and the Counter Terrorism Department joined the operation, and KP Inspector General of Police Zulfiqar Hameed praised the police response. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi also commended the KP police and the CTD.
The Bannu attack came on the same night as the Mastung suicide blast in Balochistan, where two civilians were killed and the banned Baloch Liberation Army claimed 18 soldiers dead, a figure the police rejected. The two attacks, hundreds of kilometres apart, were reported within hours of each other.
What happens next
Sanitisation operations are continuing in North Waziristan, the ISPR said, and the military has said the campaign will continue at full pace. Three things are worth watching: whether a fresh ISPR statement follows with more names or places, whether the fighting stays concentrated in Ali Khel or spreads back to Mir Ali and Orakzai, and whether the police in Bannu name the four attackers killed at the checkpost. No militant group has publicly claimed the Bannu attack.
