ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s security forces have killed 54 Pakistani Taliban militants who were attempting to infiltrate the country’s border with Afghanistan in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, the Pakistani military said on Sunday.

The large group of militants attempted to infiltrate the border in Pakistan’s North Waziristan district that borders Afghanistan, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Pakistani military’s media wing. Pakistani forces precisely engaged the militants and killed all 54 of them, seizing a sizeable cache of weapons, ammunition and explosives.

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.

In its statement, the ISPR said intelligence reports indicated that the group of Pakistani Taliban militants was specifically infiltrating at behest of their “foreign masters” to undertake “high-profile terrorist activities inside Pakistan.”

“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.”

The ISPR said this was 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 professionalism, vigilance and preparedness.

There was no immediate response to the Pakistani military’s statement by New Delhi.

The statement comes at a time of heightened tensions between Pakistan and India over an April 22 attack in Indian-administered Kashmir’s Pahalgam town, which killed 26 tourists. New Delhi blamed the 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.

Ties between Islamabad and Kabul have also been fraught over the surge in militancy in Pakistan’s western regions that border Afghanistan. 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.