Civilians Killed In Pakistani Drone Strikes Targeting Militants

Multiple civilians, including women and children, were killed in a Pakistani military operation targeting militants in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a provincial official said.

Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif, a spokesperson for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, said in a March 29 statement that nine members of a family were killed unintentionally in the operation the previous day in the mountainous Katlang area of the province’s Mardan district.

“Several wanted terrorists were successfully targeted during the operation,” Saif said, adding that civilians living nearby, including women and children, were also killed.

Local residents told RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal that the victims, originally from Swat Valley, had been living in isolation in the Katlang area. They claimed the victims were killed as a result of military drone strikes on the family’s makeshift tent.

The incident sparked public outrage, with relatives and local residents staging a protest and temporarily blocking the Swat Motorway -- a major route leading to the Swat Valley -- to condemn the killing of civilians.

Mardan district police spokesperson Fahim Khan told Radio Mashaal that the bodies had been transferred to the district headquarters hospital for post-mortem examination, and that investigations into the incident are ongoing.

An unidentified police source was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying earlier on March 29 that the Pakistani military carried out three drone strikes targeting "Pakistani Taliban hideouts" in the region.

Violence On The Rise

The operation comes amid a rise in violent attacks in Pakistan’s strategic region bordering Afghanistan and Iran.

The extremist Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Islamic State-Khorasan groups are behind an escalating insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.

Earlier on March 29, a Pakistani intelligence official told Radio Mashaal that at least seven soldiers and six suspected militants were killed during a separate military operation in the province.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with the media, said five soldiers were also injured in the clash in the province’s Lakki Marut district and had been taken to a military hospital in the city of Bannu for treatment.

The official did not identify which militant group was involved in the clash, but AFP cited an unidentified police source as saying the operation targeted “armed Taliban” fighters.

Since the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan following the US withdrawal in 2021, violence by both TTP militants and the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), a separatist militant group pursuing Balochistan's secession from Pakistan, has been on the rise.

BLA militants claimed responsibility for an unprecedented attack earlier this month with the hijacking of a passenger train with more than 400 people on board.

The Pakistani military previously claimed to have killed 11 suspected militants in four separate operations and clashes in North Waziristan and Dera Ismail Khan on March 26-27.

Radio Mashaal was unable to independently verify that claim.

Police in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province said in a report released on March 19 that, in the first 10 weeks of this year, there were a total of 68 attacks on police, in which a total of 26 soldiers were killed.

The Pakistani government says it is committed to fighting terrorism.

In a March 23 speech, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said the nation and its security agencies are "united" against terrorism and will not allow militant groups to achieve their "unspeakable" goals.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who chairs Pakistan's National Security Committee, said on March 18 that the government should respond to terrorism with "full force."

With reporting by AFP