Karachi, Pakistan ? Pakistan denounced Osama bin Laden and his top aides as “dangerous religious terrorists” Sunday and called for public help in hunting them down, five days after its first battlefield casualties in the fight against al-Qaida fugitives.

Authorities did not cite any evidence that bin Laden is in Pakistan, but the rare public appeal came as Pakistani troops were scouring a remote region on the Afghan border, searching for dozens of al-Qaida fighters after a firefight Wednesday that left 10 soldiers dead.

The call comes amid a widening crackdown on domestic extremists as part of FBI-assisted investigations into two recent deadly bombings and the kidnap-slaying earlier this year of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, which is considered a hub of militant activity.

The statement from the Interior Ministry bears photographs of bin Laden, his chief deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri and 17 other al-Qaida figures under the rubric: “Dangerous Religious Terrorists.”

“Those who kill innocent Pakistani people are the enemy of peace and country,” said the Urdu-language statement. “Their purpose is terrorism and destruction. Their religion is only terrorism. Terrorism is not jihad. Support the Pakistani government against terrorism.”

The statement quotes in Arabic from Islam’s holy book, the Quran, and urges people with information about terrorists to contact police, who would treat sources and information as confidential.