Pakistani security forces said they killed several Taliban insurgents in and around Peshawar on Saturday, four days after Taliban gunmen massacred scores of children.
At least five militants, including a key commander, were killed Saturday in a battle between security forces and militants in the Mattani area of Peshawar, sources said.
In addition, at least two suspected militants and two police officers were killed in Charsadda, a suburb of Peshawar, sources said.
On Friday, the Pakistani military said it killed 32 militants in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. A military statement didn’t specify whether any of those killed were Taliban members or whether the ambush was linked to Tuesday’s deadly attack by the group on a school in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The Taliban attack on an army school in Peshawar killed 145 people — 132 of them children.
The school massacre prompted widespread revulsion across Pakistan. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif responded by announcing an end to a moratorium on the death penalty in terrorism cases.
The Pakistani Taliban, known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, said they targeted a school that mostly admits soldiers’ children because the students aspired to follow in their fathers’ footsteps and target militants.
They also said it was revenge for the killing of hundreds of innocent tribesmen and their children during a recent offensive by Pakistan’s military.
The Pakistani army has been conducting a ground offensive aimed at clearing out Taliban and other militants in the loosely governed tribal areas of northwestern Pakistan. The campaign has displaced tens of thousands of people.
The Pakistani Taliban, which has close ties with its namesake in Afghanistan, has long taken credit for an extensive list of assaults on civilians and security forces in Pakistan.