Islamabad:
Pakistani forces said on Sunday that the soldiers killed 54 militants who tried to enter the country across the northwestern border with Afghanistan.
A statement from the Army said between Friday and Sunday, “a large group movement… was attempting to infringe the Pakistan-Afghan border” in the northern province of Khyber Paktanwa.
“The jihadist group had invaded in honor of the ‘foreign masters’ to carry out famous terrorist activities within Pakistan,” he said, adding that 54 militants had been killed.
Pakistan is tackling a widespread increase in extremists in neighbouring Afghanistan, where Islamabad claims attackers are currently taking shelter.
Separately, India accused Pakistan of supporting “cross-border terrorism.” The shooters killed 26 people in the worst attacks on civilians in the contested Kashmir region in 2017. Islamabad denied involvement.
Pakistani forces said on Sunday that “weapons, ammunition and explosives have also been recovered.”
It comes a day after 15 militants were killed in the state in three clashes that killed two soldiers.
More than 200 people have been killed in attacks since the beginning of the year by armed groups fighting the government in both Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, according to AFP Tally.
Home Minister Mohshin Nakvi told reporters in Lahore on Sunday that extremists “foreign masters are pushing them into Pakistan.”
“Our soldiers attacked them from three sides and killed 54 (extremists),” Naqvi said.
“This is the largest number of this ongoing operation to date, and such a large number has never been killed before.”
Last year was Pakistan’s most deadly in nearly a decade, according to the Islamabad Research and Security Research Centre.
Pakistan has accused the Taliban government of not defeating the extremists organizing Afghanistan’s soil, but Kabul has routinely denied it.
