ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s army said on Monday it had killed three militants who were infiltrating the country’s border with Afghanistan in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.

The militants attempted to infiltrate the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in KP’s Dir district, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing.

Pakistani forces surrounded and effectively engaged the infiltrators, and all three of them were killed after an intense exchange of fire.

“Pakistan has consistently been asking Interim Afghan Government to ensure effective border management on their side of the border,” the ISPR noted.

“Security forces of Pakistan are determined and remain committed to securing its borders and eliminating the menace of terrorism from the country.”

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which borders Afghanistan, has seen a surge in attacks on security forces, government officials and anti-polio vaccination teams in recent weeks. Attacks have also spiked in the southwestern Balochistan province, home to a decades-long insurgency by separatist fighters.

In a major attack in KP’s Bannu, ten soldiers were killed last week when militants launched a coordinated attack on a military cantonment on July 15.

Islamabad blames the recent surge in attacks, including the attack on the army cantonment in Bannu, on militants, mainly from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), operating out of neighboring Afghanistan. Kabul denies the allegations and says rising violence in Pakistan is a domestic issue for Islamabad.

Pakistani forces were able to effectively dismantle the TTP in a string of military operations in KP’s tribal districts from 2014 onwards, driving most of the fighters into neighboring Afghanistan, where Islamabad says they have regrouped.

Islamabad says TTP leaders have taken refuge in Afghanistan and now run camps there to train insurgents to launch attacks inside Pakistan. The Afghan Taliban rulers say Kabul does not allow militants to operate on its territory.