Islamabad:
Pakistan’s military mentioned Sunday its troopers killed 54 militants who had tried to enter the nation by crossing its northwestern border with Afghanistan.
“Motion of a big group… who had been attempting to infiltrate by way of Pakistan-Afghanistan border was detected by the safety forces” within the northern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa between Friday and Sunday, in response to a military assertion.
The “group of jihadists was particularly infiltrating on behest of their ‘international masters’ to undertake excessive profile terrorist actions inside Pakistan,” it mentioned, including that 54 militants had been killed.
Pakistan is grappling with a broad uptick in militancy coinciding with the Taliban’s 2021 return to energy in neighbouring Afghanistan, the place Islamabad claims attackers are actually taking shelter.
Individually, India has blamed Pakistan of supporting “cross-border terrorism” after gunmen killed 26 folks on April 22 within the worst assault on civilians within the contested Kashmir area in years. Islamabad has denied any involvement.
The Pakistani military mentioned Sunday a “massive cache of weapons, ammunition & explosives was additionally recovered” from the militants making an attempt to enter Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
It comes a day after 15 militants had been killed within the province in three clashes that additionally left two troopers lifeless.
Greater than 200 folks, principally safety forces, have been killed in assaults because the begin of the yr by armed teams combating the federal government in each Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces, in response to an AFP tally.
Inside Minister Mohsin Naqvi informed reporters in Lahore on Sunday that the militants’ “international masters are pushing them to enter Pakistan”.
“Our troopers attacked them from three sides and killed 54 (militants),” Naqvi mentioned.
“That is the most important variety of this ongoing operation until in the present day, such a giant quantity has by no means been killed earlier than.”
Final yr was the deadliest in almost a decade in Pakistan, in response to the Centre for Analysis and Safety Research in Islamabad, with the overwhelming majority of the assaults close to the western border with Afghanistan.
Pakistan accuses the Taliban authorities of failing to rout out militants organising on Afghan soil, a cost Kabul routinely denies.