Islamabad, IRNA – Pakistani security forces have killed 54 militants who were trying to cross the border from Afghanistan, the army said on Sunday.
In a statement, the Pakistani army said intelligence reports indicated the militants were khwarij, a word the Pakistani government uses to refer to members of the Pakistani Taliban.
Without directly blaming anyone, the army said the slain militants had been sent by their “foreign masters” to carry out terrorist attacks inside Pakistan.
According to the statement, at least 54 attackers were killed in the clashes, with security forces seizing weapons, ammunition, and explosives.
Pakistan has long accused India, its eastern neighbor, of backing militant groups to carry out attacks on its soil.
Tensions between the two nuclear-armed South Asian countries have escalated following a deadly assault on tourists in Pahalgam, southern Kashmir, which India blamed on Pakistan.
The army referred to a recent meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC), which had alleged that “distracting Pakistan’s security forces from their focus on the war against terror seems to be the strategic intent of India.”
“This is the highest ever number of khwarij killed by our Security Forces in a single engagement during the entire campaign against terrorism,” the statement added.
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