Pakistani troops kill 54 militants attempting to cross border from Afghanistan

Pakistani security forces killed 54 militants who attempted to cross into the country from Afghanistan, the military announced on Sunday, making it one of the deadliest such incidents in recent years.

In a statement, the military said intelligence reports indicated that the militants killed were "Khwarij," a term the government uses to refer to the Pakistani Taliban.

The military, without directly assigning blame, stated that the slain insurgents had been dispatched by their "foreign masters" to carry out high-profile terrorist attacks within Pakistan.

The insurgents were spotted and killed near the former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban near North Waziristan, a district in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province along the Afghan border.

The military said the infiltration attempt came “at a time when India is leveling baseless accusations against Pakistan” following a recent deadly assault on tourists in India-controlled Kashmir.

Pakistan in recent months has witnessed a surge in violence, mostly blamed on the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

The group is separate but maintains an alliance with the Afghan Taliban, who took control of Afghanistan in August 2021. Since then, numerous leaders and fighters of the TTP have found refuge in Afghanistan.

On Sunday, Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tatar informed foreign media that New Delhi had accused Islamabad of being behind the tourist attack, aiming to divert Pakistan’s security forces from focusing on the ongoing conflict along its western borders.