On February 21, 2026, a suicide attack in Bannu, Pakistan, resulted in the deaths of two soldiers, including Lieutenant Colonel Shahzada Gul Faraz, during an intelligence-based operation against militants linked to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The military's Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) reported that the attack was executed by a vehicle-borne suicide bomber who managed to ram an explosives-laden vehicle into the convoy, killing Lt. Col. Faraz, 43, and Sepoy Karamat Shah, 28. The ISPR emphasized that five militants were killed during the operation, which aimed to thwart terrorism allegedly sponsored by India from Afghan soil. Responsibility for the attack was claimed by Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen, a subgroup of the TTP, with the military linking it to the Afghan-based Hafiz Gul Bahadur network, noting that over 70% of terrorist incidents in Pakistan involve Afghan-origin militants (ABC International, Al Jazeera).