Pakistan kills 54 militants backed by ‘foreign masters' amid soaring tensions with India — military
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's security forces have killed 54 militants, backed by 'foreign masters,' who were attempting to infiltrate the country's border with Afghanistan in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, the Pakistani military said on Sunday, amid heightened tensions with India.
The Pakistani military said intelligence reports indicated that the group of 'Fitna al Khwarij,' a term used by Islamabad to describe Pakistani Taliban militants, was specifically infiltrating at the behest of their 'foreign masters' to undertake 'high-profile terrorist activities inside Pakistan.' The ISPR statement was a reference to India and came at a time of soaring tensions between Islamabad and New Delhi over a militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 tourists this week.
New Delhi blamed the April 22 attack on Pakistan, an allegation denied by Islamabad. Both nations have since unleashed a raft of measures against each other, with Pakistan closing its airspace to Indian airlines and India suspending the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty that regulates water-sharing from the Indus River and its tributaries.
This is the highest ever number of Pakistani Taliban militants killed in a single engagement and the Pakistani security forces prevented a 'potential catastrophe' by demonstrating exceptional vigilance and preparedness, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Pakistani military's media wing. Pakistani forces also seized a sizeable cache of weapons, ammunition and explosives from the site of the encounter in the North Waziristan district.
'Such actions by Fitna al Khwarij (FAK), at a time when India is leveling baseless accusations against Pakistan, clearly implies on whose cues FAK is operating,' it said.
'The recent [meeting of] NSC (National Security Committee) also underscored the fact that distracting Pakistan's security forces from their focus on the war against terror seems to be the strategic intent of India to allow a breathing space to FAK which is reeling from the onslaught of our Armed Forces resolute offensive against them.'
There was no immediate response to the Pakistani military's statement by New Delhi.
Pakistan has struggled to contain surging militancy in KP in recent years, where the Pakistani Taliban have mounted their attacks against security forces and police since their fragile, months-long truce with Islamabad broke down in late 2022. Islamabad has variously accused Afghanistan and India of supporting the Pakistani Taliban and other militant groups, an allegation denied by Kabul and New Delhi.
Pakistan says the Taliban's takeover of Kabul has emboldened the Pakistani Taliban, which is a separate group but seen by Islamabad as an ally of the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan. Kabul denies the allegations and insists Pakistan's security is an internal matter of Islamabad.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif praised the Pakistani security forces for their timely action and professionalism in preventing the militants from entering the country.
'These successful operations indicate that Pakistan is winning the war on terror and achieving significant successes against terrorists,' he said.
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