ISLAMABAD – Pakistani security forces overnight killed 54 militants who attempted to cross into the country from Afghanistan, the military said Sunday, marking one of the deadliest such killings in recent years.

In a statement, the military said intelligence reports indicated the killed militants were “Khwarij” — a phrase the government uses for the Pakistani Taliban.

Without directly blaming anyone, the military said the slain insurgents had been sent by their “foreign masters” to carry out high-profile terrorist attacks inside Pakistan.

The insurgents were spotted and killed near the former stronghold of Pakistan Taliban near North Waziristan, a district in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province along the Afghan border.

The military said the infiltration attempt came “at a time when India is leveling baseless accusations against Pakistan” following a recent deadly assault on tourists in India-controlled Kashmir.

Pakistan in recent months has witnessed a surge in violence, mostly blamed on the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.

It is a separate group but allied with the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021.

Many TTP leaders and fighters have found sanctuary in Afghanistan since then.

Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tatar on Sunday told the foreign media that New Delhi blamed Islamabad for the tourist attack to distract Pakistan’s security forces from their focus on the war on its western borders.