The Inter-Services Public Relations says 21 militants were killed in a series of engagements in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Dawn; Express Tribune; APP; ARY News).
Read the dates before the totals
This is a cumulative statement covering several days, and part of it has been reported before. It should not be added to earlier figures.
| Engagement | Dates | Killed | |—|—|—| | North Waziristan, follow-up to the 31 Aug-1 Sep engagement | — | 10 | | North Waziristan, separate encounter on the border | — | 7 | | Kohat and Dera Ismail Khan, two joint operations | — | 4 | | Today’s total | | 21 |
Separately, ISPR gave a cumulative figure of 25 for the North Waziristan operation. That total includes the 15 killed while attempting to cross from Afghanistan, announced on 3 September and reported by this newspaper then — 15 plus the 10 above.
No security force casualties were mentioned in the statement.
Why the arithmetic matters
Two numbers are circulating from the same statement: 21 newly killed, and 25 as a running total for the North Waziristan operation.
They are not additive. The 25 contains the 15 announced on 3 September. A reader adding 21 and 25 — or adding either to the 15 from Wednesday and the 12 from Kalat on Thursday — would double-count.
Attribution
ISPR said those killed “belonged to Fitna-al-Khawarij” and were “sponsored by India” — the military’s terms for the banned TTP and for alleged Indian backing respectively. India rejects such claims. Both characterisations are official Pakistani military assertions and are reported here as attribution, not as established fact.
The statement added: “These repeated incidents along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border have once again vindicated Pakistan’s persistent stance regarding the abject failure of the Afghan Taliban regime.” Kabul has consistently rejected that charge.
What cannot be verified
All of it comes from a single official source. North Waziristan, Kohat and Dera Ismail Khan are effectively closed to independent journalists, and there is no non-official count against which any of these figures can be checked. This newspaper has not been able to corroborate them and says so.
The pattern
This is the third ISPR announcement in five days that this newspaper has covered — 15 in North Waziristan on 3 September, 12 in Kalat on 4 September, and today’s cumulative statement. The operations are being reported at a rate that makes careful date-keeping the main editorial task.
[Image: file photograph of Pakistan Army personnel in a military vehicle. AFP/File, via Dawn.]
[Image: AFP/File via Dawn]
