Three militants killed while trying to ‘infiltrate’ Pakistan-Afghanistan border — Pakistani military

• A Pakistani soldier was also killed in a separate attack on a Pakistani post from ‘inside Afghanistan,’ the Pakistani military says
• Pakistan has been witnessing a surge in militant violence in its western regions since the Pakistani Taliban called off their truce 

ISLAMABAD: Three militants were killed while attempting to “infiltrate” Pakistan, while a cross-border attack left a Pakistani soldier dead in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, the Pakistani military said on Sunday. 
Pakistani security forces found the three militants infiltrating the country’s border with Afghanistan in the Bajaur district, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing.
All three of them were killed in an exchange of fire with the security forces.
“Weapons, ammunition and explosives were also recovered from the killed terrorists,” the ISPR said in a statement.
In another incident, the Pakistani military said, militants from “inside Afghanistan” opened fire on a Pakistani border post in the North Waziristan district.
“Own troops responded in a befitting manner causing considerable losses to the terrorists,” it said. “However, during the exchange of fire, Naik Abdul Rauf (age: 31 years, resident of: District Rahim Yar Khan), having fought gallantly, embraced Shahadat (martyrdom).”
The military noted that Pakistan had consistently been asking the interim Afghan government to ensure effective border management on its side of the border. 
“Interim Afghan Government is expected to fulfill its obligations and deny the use of Afghan soil by terrorists for perpetuating acts of terrorism against Pakistan,” it added.
The development comes amid a surge in militant violence in Pakistan over the last one year, which particularly increased after the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) called off its months-long truce with the government in Islamabad in November 2022. 
The militant group, which is said to have sanctuaries in neighboring Afghanistan, is separate from but a close ally of the Afghan Taliban. 
Unidentified suspects this week torched a government-run girls’ school in the Bannu district that sparked fears among residents of renewed militant violence in the area, an official said.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack on the school, District Police Officer (DPO) Iftikhar Ali Shah told Arab News, though the attackers left a note on the school gate mentioning the outlawed TTP.
In a statement released to the media on Saturday, the ISPR said security forces had killed five militants in an intelligence-based operation in the northwestern Pakistani province.