Security forces in Pakistan said on Tuesday they killed 23 militants belonging to the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in two different operations in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province this week.

Axar.az, citing Arab News, reports that Pakistan refers to fighters of the TTP, an umbrella group of various armed groups, as “khawarij,” a term rooted in Islamic history that is used for an extremist sect that rebelled against authority and declared other Muslims to be apostates.

The Inter-Services Public Relations ISPR said “sanitization operations” were carried out to eliminate any other militants in the area, adding the counterterrorism campaign launched by security forces would continue “at full pace to wipe out the menace of foreign-sponsored and supported terrorism from the country.”