ISLAMABAD: Two Pakistani soldiers and a militant were killed in a gunbattle in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the Pakistani military said on Monday, amid a renewed wave of militancy in the South Asian country.

The gunbattle took place in Mir Ali area of the North Waziristan tribal district, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Pakistani military’s media wing.

The exchange of fire left two soldiers, 25-year-old Sepoy Abdullah and 19-year-old Sepoy Muhammad Sohail.

“Sanitization of the surrounding areas is being carried out to neutralize any terrorists found in the area,” the ISPR said in a statement.

Pakistan’s northwestern tribal regions that border Afghanistan have long been a hotbed of militancy, however, successive military operations pushed the members of militant outfits, mainly the Pakistani Taliban, across the border into Afghanistan.

These militant groups are said to have reorganized themselves amid the Imran Khan-led government’s talks with the Pakistani Taliban, or the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), that were facilitated by the Afghan Taliban following their takeover of Kabul in August 2021.

Pakistan has witnessed a spike in militant violence over the last one year, which particularly increased after the TTP called off its months-long truce with the government in November 2022. The militant group, which is said to have sanctuaries in neighboring Afghanistan, is separate from but a close ally of the Afghan Taliban.

The attack comes on the same day when police said “militants” had fired rockets at three vehicles carrying employees of a Pakistani conglomerate, killing two people and injuring 11 on the outskirts of the northwestern Dera Ismail Khan district.

In view of increased violence, Pakistan last month ordered all illegal foreigners, mostly Afghan nationals, to leave the country by Nov 1. Authorities in the country have since been cracking down on undocumented migrants and transporting them to the Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan for deportation.

The Pakistani government said many of these Afghans had been involved in militant attacks and in crimes that undermined the security of the country, brushing off calls from the United Nations, rights groups and Western embassies to reconsider the expulsion plan. Kabul denies the accusation.