Islamabad:
Pakistan’s military stated 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 making an attempt 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 keeping with a military assertion.
The “group of jihadists was particularly infiltrating on behest of their ‘overseas masters’ to undertake excessive profile terrorist actions inside Pakistan,” it stated, 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 stated Sunday a “giant cache of weapons, ammunition & explosives was additionally recovered” from the militants trying 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 useless.
Greater than 200 folks, principally safety forces, have been killed in assaults for the reason that begin of the 12 months by armed teams combating the federal government in each Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces, in keeping with an AFP tally.
Inside Minister Mohsin Naqvi informed reporters in Lahore on Sunday that the militants’ “overseas masters are pushing them to enter Pakistan”.
“Our troopers attacked them from three sides and killed 54 (militants),” Naqvi stated.
“That is the most important variety of this ongoing operation until at the moment, such a giant quantity has by no means been killed earlier than.”
Final 12 months was the deadliest in practically a decade in Pakistan, in keeping with 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.
