At least seven terrorists were gunned down by the Pakistani forces on Monday in an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in the Sambaza Sector near the Pak-Afghan border in Balochistan’s Zhob district. According to a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), heavy exchange of fire took place between the troops, resulting in the fleeing militants being “neutralised”. The terrorists were actively involved in activities against security forces as well as killing of innocent civilians, the military’s media wing reported. Forces recovered a large cache of arms, ammunition and explosives from the terrorist hideouts. A “sanitisation operation was being carried out to eliminate any other terrorists present in the area. Security Forces of Pakistan are determined to eliminate the menace of terrorism”, the ISPR statement maintained. On January 18, Pakistan’s armed forces struck hideouts used by terrorist organisations, the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF), inside Iran in an intelligence-based operation, said the ISPR. The military’s media wing elaborated that the “precision strikes” were carried out using armed drones, rockets, loitering munitions and stand-off weapons. The military codenamed the retaliatory strikes as ‘Operation Marg Bar Sarmachar’. “The targeted hideouts were being used by notorious terrorists including Dosta alias Chairman, Bajjar alias Soghat, Sahil alias Shafaq, Asghar alias Basham and Wazir alias Wazi, amongst others,” said the ISPR.