ISLAMABAD

The Pakistan army on Friday claimed that they have killed at least 30 suspected militants while attempting to cross the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

In a statement, the military said that the movement of a group of militants trying to infiltrate through the Pakistan-Afghanistan border was detected by the security forces in the general area of Hassan Khel in the North Waziristan tribal district, near the Afghan border.

"Our troops effectively engaged and thwarted the Indian-sponsored Khawarij's attempt to infiltrate. As a result of precise and skillful engagement, all thirty Indian-sponsored Khawarij were sent to hell," it said in the statement.

A large quantity of weapons, ammunition, and explosives was also recovered from the militants.

The Pakistani military said the Afghan interim Taliban administration "needs to check" and prevent the use of Afghan soil by "foreign proxies" for orchestrating terrorist activities against Pakistan.

There was no immediate reaction from New Delhi or Kabul to the statement from the Pakistani military.

Last week, at least 13 Pakistani soldiers were killed in a suicide bombing in North Waziristan, in the country’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border, while 14 terrorists were killed by the military in subsequent operations.

Islamabad accuses Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants, who are allegedly based in Afghanistan, of carrying out terrorist attacks in Pakistan, while Kabul denies that such attacks are launched from its soil.