PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) claims to have dismantled the network of the self-styled Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) terrorist group in the province with the help of intelligence agencies.

       Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, DIG CTD Javed Iqbal said IS-K had started becoming active in the province after May this year.

       He said the group wanted to sow fear and disrupt investments in the province by attacking police personnel and the polio security staff.

       However, he said the CTD successfully thwarted the IS-K’s plans to carry out major terrorist attacks in the province. He said CTD had carried out major operations against the group across the province during the current year, arresting a total of 599 terrorists and killing 110 others.

       Mr Iqbal said in a joint operation, the Peshawar police and CTD personnel killed three top IS-K terrorists, and arrested several others. “Three IS-K groups were bust in Peshawar and one in Bannu,” he claimed.

       DIG Javed Iqbal said the CTD with the help of intelligence agencies had also managed to arrest the terrorists involved in the Dasu suicide attack on Chinese engineers.

       He said in the first year of its operations in the merged areas, the CTD had killed nine terrorists in three encounters in Khyber, South and North Waziristan districts.

       He said 82 terrorists with head money were also arrested, adding a terrorist, namely Shanullah, who was involved in 24 incidents of targeted killing, was eliminated in an encounter in Lakki Marwat.

       Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2021