Islamabad:Pakistan’s army said Sunday its soldiers killed 54 militants who had tried to enter the country by crossing its northwestern border with Afghanistan.
“Movement of a large group… who were trying to infiltrate through Pakistan-Afghanistan border was detected by the security forces” in the northern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa between Friday and Sunday, according to an army statement.
The “group of jihadists was specifically infiltrating on behest of their ‘foreign masters’ to undertake high profile terrorist activities inside Pakistan,” it said, adding that 54 militants had been killed.
Pakistan is grappling with a broad uptick in militancy coinciding with the Taliban’s 2021 return to power in neighbouring Afghanistan, where Islamabad claims attackers are now taking shelter.
Separately, India has blamed Pakistan of supporting “cross-border terrorism” after gunmen killed 26 people on April 22 in the worst attack on civilians in the contested Kashmir region in years. Islamabad has denied any involvement.
The Pakistani army said Sunday a “large cache of weapons, ammunition & explosives was also recovered” from the militants attempting to enter Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
It comes a day after 15 militants were killed in the province in three clashes that also left two soldiers dead.
More than 200 people, mostly security forces, have been killed in attacks since the start of the year by armed groups fighting the government in both Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces, according to an AFP tally.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi told reporters in Lahore on Sunday that the militants’ “foreign masters are pushing them to enter Pakistan”.
“Our soldiers attacked them from three sides and killed 54 (militants),” Naqvi said.
“This is the biggest number of this ongoing operation till today, such a big number has never been killed before.”
Last year was the deadliest in nearly a decade in Pakistan, according to the Centre for Research and Security Studies in Islamabad, with the vast majority of the attacks near the western border with Afghanistan.
Pakistan accuses the Taliban government of failing to rout out militants organising on Afghan soil, a charge Kabul routinely denies.