DERA ISMAIL KHAN: A Pakistan Army major embraced martyrdom during a raid on a terrorist hideout in Dera Ismail Khan district, the military said on Wednesday. An army statement said the security forces conducted a search operation in Kulachi area of Dera Ismail Khan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “In [an] exchange of fire Major Ishaq embraced ‘shahdat’ (martyrdom),” the statement from the army’s media wing the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said. Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa and senior military officers attended his funeral, the statement said. The 28-year-old army officer had left behind a widow and an infant. Major Ishaq is the second army officer to have lost life during an anti-terrorism operation in the country in two days. Earlier, Nasir Mehmood was killed while two other soldiers sustained injuries when they raided a terrorist hideout in Turbat, Balochistan, on Tuesday, according to the army. The forces rescued 16 foreigners, including Nigerians and Yemenis, who were kept hostages by those terrorists. The operation was part of the major intelligence-based operations that were launched in February this year to target the hideouts and sleeper cells of militants and their sympathisers. Published in Daily Times, November 23rd 2017.