ISLAMABAD: Pakistani security forces this week killed five militants, including a suicide bomber, during an intelligence-based operation in the country’s southwestern Balochistan province, the military’s media wing said on Monday. 

The operation took place in Balochistan’s Pishin district on Sunday after security forces received reports of the presence of “Fitna Al Khwarij,” a term the military uses to describe the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group. Pakistani forces engaged the militants with multiple weapons, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) added, as both sides traded fire. 

“After an intense fire exchange, suicide bomber kharji cowardly blew himself up and four other Indian-sponsored khwarij were hunted down and sent to hell,” the military’s media wing said. 

Pakistani forces recovered weapons, ammunition and explosives from the slain militants, the military said, adding that they were involved in numerous “terrorist activities” in the area. 

The military said it was carrying out sanitization operations to hunt any other militants in the area. It vowed to continue the government’s counterterrorism campaign to wipe out “foreign sponsored and supported terrorism” from Pakistan. 

The TTP has carried out some of the deadliest attacks against civilians and law enforcement agencies in Pakistan since 2007 in its bid to impose its own brand of Islamic law in the country.

Pakistan says TTP, Daesh and ethnic Baloch separatist outfits enjoy sanctuary in Afghanistan from where they launch attacks against its territory. Afghanistan denies the allegations and calls on Islamabad to address its security challenges without involving Kabul.

Pakistan carried out intelligence-based strikes on alleged militant camps and hideouts in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar, Paktika and Khost provinces on Saturday, a security official said. The official said more than 80 militants were killed in the attacks, a claim denied by the Afghan Taliban who said Islamabad killed and wounded dozens of civilians in the strikes.

The strikes have increased tensions between the neighbors, with Afghanistan warning it will retaliate at a “suitable time.”

Islamabad also accuses India of arming and funding militant groups that carry out attacks in Pakistan, a charge New Delhi rejects.