ISLAMABAD: Militants killed at least nine Pakistani soldiers in an attack in the country’s restive southwestern Balochistan province, AFP news agency quoted a government official as saying on Tuesday, followed by the killing of 50 insurgents in days-long operation in the region.

A senior official of Washuk district, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said dozens of militants attacked a police station and a border force compound.

“The army was attacked by terrorists on their way to respond,” he told AFP. “The terrorists killed nine soldiers.”

There was no immediate confirmation of the incident from the Pakistani military.

However, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing, said security forces conducted a sanitization operation on the night of Aug. 10 and killed three militants near the Sambaza area in Balochistan’s Zhob district, close to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

The latest deaths brought the total militant fatalities in the area to 50 in the last four days, the ISPR said.

“Weapons, ammunition and explosives were also recovered from the killed khawarij,” the ISPR said, using the term Pakistan frequently uses to describe militants belonging to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

“The security forces remain committed to secure the nation’s frontiers and thwart attempts at sabotaging peace, stability and progress of Pakistan.”

Pakistan has witnessed a sharp rise in violence in its western regions bordering Afghanistan since November 2022, after a fragile truce with the TTP broke down.

While the military says the recent infiltration attempt took place in the volatile Balochistan province, the site of a long-running insurgency by Baloch separatists, the TTP has primarily carried out attacks in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region, targeting security personnel, police and civilians.

In recent months, Islamabad has frequently accused India of backing militant groups and Afghanistan of allowing the use of its soil for attacks against Pakistan. Kabul and New Delhi both deny the allegation.

Hostilities between Pakistan and India turned into a four-day military conflict in May when both nuclear-armed neighbors struck each other with missiles, fighter jets, drones and traded artillery fire that killed over 70 people in total.

An attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26, mostly tourists, on Apr. 22 sparked the worst fighting in decades between the neighbors in early May. India blamed Pakistan for supporting the militants involved in the attack, which Islamabad strongly denied and called for a transparent probe into the incident.

After four days of fighting between the two countries, US President Donald Trump brokered a ceasefire between India and Pakistan on May 10 as fears of the conflict intensifying between the nuclear states grew.