Pakistani security forces killed 54 armed people overnight who tried to cross into the country from Afghanistan, the military said today.
In a statement, the military claims that intelligence reports indicate that the killed militants are actually Pakistani Taliban.
Without blaming anyone directly, the military said the slain insurgents were sent by their "foreign masters" to carry out high-profile terrorist attacks inside Pakistan.
The militants were reportedly spotted and killed near a former Pakistani Taliban stronghold near North Waziristan, a district in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province along the border with Afghanistan.
The military said the infiltration attempt came "at a time when India is making baseless allegations against Pakistan" following a recent deadly attack on tourists in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir.
Pakistan has been hit by a surge in violence in recent months, largely blamed on the Pakistani Taliban, known as the Territorial Taliban Pakistan. It is a separate group but is allied with the Afghan Taliban, which took power in Afghanistan in August 2021.
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