Reporting snapshot · 29 September 2026. Casualty counts and the identification of militant groups rest on security-source briefings carried by Pakistani outlets; KhabarWire could not independently verify them.
What happened
Pakistan’s security forces carried out two separate intelligence-based operations (IBOs) on 29 September 2026, killing six militants in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, security sources told Pakistani media. The Express Tribune, citing security sources, reported four militants killed in an IBO in K-P’s Dera Ismail Khan district and a further two in the Nokcha area of Balochistan’s Chagai district, taking the day’s total to six.
Geo News, also citing security sources, reported a slightly different breakdown: five militants killed in an IBO in Bara town in K-P and two in Nokcha, for a total of seven. Both outlets said the militants in Nokcha were pursued after they set an empty water bowser ablaze; the Express Tribune named the Balochistan cell as belonging to the banned Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), while Geo News described the same attackers as members of “Fitna al-Hindustan”, the label used by the Pakistani state for India-sponsored militants operating in Balochistan. The K-P militants were named as “Fitna al-Khawarij”, the state’s term for the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and affiliated networks.
In both accounts the operations were described as part of the wider counter-insurgency campaign the military calls Azm-e-Istehkam, which the Federal Apex Committee approved under the National Action Plan. The Express Tribune, citing the security sources, said weapons and ammunition were recovered from the K-P cell and that militant hideouts had been destroyed. Geo News reported that the Balochistan cell had also been responsible for arson attacks on the N-40 highway and that 11 militants it described as belonging to Fitna al-Hindustan had been killed in the same district on 31 August.
The discrepancy in the early tallies is most plausibly explained by the way security-source briefings reach newsrooms: each outlet received the count from a different security liaison chain before the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) had consolidated the figures. Neither outlet named an ISPR press statement confirming the total, and the ISPR’s website was unreachable at the time of writing.
Why it matters
The 29 September operations are the latest in a sustained military push in both provinces that the ISPR describes as part of Operation Shaban, launched in Quetta district on 21 September and centred on the Shaban, Ziarat, Nushki, Mand and Nokcha areas. On 27 September the ISPR said more than 71 militants had been killed in 96 hours; a fresh statement on 28 September put the cumulative total at “more than 71” and said security forces had cleared multiple hideouts and recovered weapons, ammunition and explosives. President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who paid tribute to the security forces after those announcements, have not yet commented on the 29 September operations.
Operation Shaban itself targets the same Balochistan-based militant networks named in today’s Nokcha operation. The Nokcha area sits on the N-40 Quetta-Taftan highway in Chagai district, close to the Iranian border, and has been a recurring site of attacks and checkpoints: on 31 August the military said 11 militants were killed there after they blocked the highway and set up an illegal checkpoint, an attack that the Express Tribune today cited as context for the 29 September raid. The killing on 27 September of 11 militants in a separate Nushki IBO and six more in Mand was also framed by the ISPR as part of the same push against what it calls Indian-sponsored Fitna al-Hindustan and Fitna al-Khawarij.
In K-P, the picture is less unified. The Dera Ismail Khan and Bara districts have been persistent theatres of militant violence since 2022, with both the TTP and aligned networks active along the western corridor. KhabarWire has covered several recent operations in the area, including the September Balochistan sweep and the broader insurgent attacks that have prompted the centre to escalate pressure on the provincial government for what it calls an inadequate counterterror response. The federal–provincial tension in K-P has become a separate political story, with Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and Information Minister Attaullah Tarar publicly accusing the PTI-led provincial government of failing to act against terrorist networks — a row that today sits in the background of every new IBO tally from the district.
What is still uncertain
The most important open question is the precise total for 29 September. The Express Tribune reports six killed across both provinces and Geo News reports seven. Without an ISPR press statement confirming the count and the groups involved, both tallies remain provisional; later reporting may reconcile or revise them. The named militant affiliations also differ: the Express Tribune names BLA in Balochistan and Fitna al-Khawarij in K-P, while Geo News names Fitna al-Hindustan in Balochistan and Fitna al-Khawarij in K-P. Both labels are used by the Pakistani state for networks it considers hostile, and both are denied by India.
The other unresolved question is the connection between the 29 September operations and the wider political fight over counterterror responsibility in K-P. The federal ministers have used each new IBO tally to press the case that the PTI-led provincial government is not acting against terrorist networks; the provincial government has rejected that framing and accused the centre of inflating figures for political gain. KhabarWire cannot adjudicate the political dispute from the operational facts of one day’s operations, and readers should treat the casualty counts as preliminary until the ISPR publishes an authoritative statement.
Related coverage on KhabarWire
KhabarWire has tracked the wider Balochistan campaign as part of the same Azm-e-Istehkam push, including the ISPR’s 4 September announcement of 48 militants killed across Mastung, Quetta, Kalat and Sibi and earlier coverage of the February 2025 Radd-ul-Fitna operations.
Sources & reporting notes
This is a contemporaneous summary of published reporting, not eyewitness reporting. The 29 September casualty figures and the militant-group identifications come from security sources cited by Pakistani outlets; they were not independently verified. Sources were reviewed on 29 September 2026.
- The Express Tribune — "Six terrorists killed in K-P, Balochistan ops"29 September 2026 · Reports the Dera Ismail Khan and Nokcha operations, the BLA attribution for the Balochistan cell and the recovery of weapons and ammunition.
- Geo News — "Seven India-backed terrorists killed in KP, Balochistan operations: security sources"29 September 2026 · Reports the Bara (K-P) and Nokcha (Balochistan) operations, the Fitna al-Hindustan and Fitna al-Khawarij attributions and the 31 August Nokcha attack as background.
- The Express Tribune — "Over 70 terrorists killed in Balochistan"28 September 2026 · Carries the ISPR statement that Operation Shaban and other Balochistan IBOs had killed more than 71 militants in 96 hours, with presidential and prime ministerial tributes.
