Pakistan security forces kill '71 terrorists' in three days near Afghan border

Pakistan's military announced Monday that security forces have killed a total of 71 militants in a three-day operation along the Afghanistan border, marking it the deadliest engagement in the country's ongoing counter-terrorism campaign amid escalating regional tensions with neighboring India.

According to Pakistan's military media wing, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), troops conducted a "deliberate sanitization operation" overnight in the Hassan Khel area of North Waziristan District, killing 17 more militants linked to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), referred to by the military as Khawarij.

"Seventeen more khwarij, who were operating on the behest of their foreign masters, were hunted down and successfully neutralized," the ISPR statement said. "Weapons, ammunition & explosives were also recovered from the killed khwarij."

The overnight operation follows the killing of 54 militants during infiltration attempts on April 25-27 in the same region, when security forces thwarted what officials described as a potentially catastrophic terrorist plot.

Yesterday, the military described the initial engagement as "the highest number of militants killed by Pakistani forces in a single engagement during the entire counterterrorism campaign".

"The entire nation stands united with the security forces in the war against terrorism," President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a joint statement on Sunday.

Heightened tensions

The border clashes come amid heightened tensions between Pakistan and India following an April 22 attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir. Pakistan has rejected India's accusations of involvement in the incident, while suggesting the militant activity along the Afghan border may be connected to these regional tensions.

Pakistani authorities have repeatedly accused Afghanistan's Taliban-led government of allowing militants to use its territory to launch attacks, claims the Taliban denies.