Peshawar: Security forces killed 21 militants associated with the Indian-sponsored group Fitna-al-Khawarij during a series of engagements across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa between 3 and 5 September.

According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the operations followed an earlier encounter on the night of 31 August and 1 September along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in North Waziristan District. In that earlier action, security forces eliminated 10 militants who had been holed up in the area after attempting to infiltrate. This brought the total number of militants neutralised in the border engagement to 25.

In a subsequent encounter in North Waziristan, troops detected the movement of another group of militants along the border. Security forces engaged the group and neutralised seven of them. Four further militants were killed in two separate encounters in Kohat and Dera Ismail Khan districts during joint operations.

ISPR stated that sanitisation operations continue in the affected areas to eliminate any remaining militants.

The military said the repeated incidents along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border supported Pakistan’s position that the Afghan Taliban authorities had failed to prevent the use of Afghan territory by the group for cross-border attacks. ISPR added that the Afghan authorities had not ensured effective border management or fulfilled their international counter-terrorism commitments.

Security forces remain committed to defending Pakistan’s borders, ISPR said. The counter-terrorism campaign under the Azm-e-Istehkam framework will continue until foreign-sponsored terrorism is eliminated from the country.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif separately paid tribute to the security forces for the successful operations. Both leaders praised the professional response of the troops in foiling infiltration attempts along the border and in subsequent actions in the province.

President Zardari again urged the Afghan interim government to stop the use of its territory for terrorism. He said Pakistan’s security forces would continue to defend the country’s frontiers and eliminate the threat.

Prime Minister Sharif said the nation stood with the security forces in the campaign against terrorism. He reiterated that operations under Azm-e-Istehkam would proceed with full resolve until foreign-sponsored terrorism is removed from Pakistan.