Nine ‘terrorists’ killed in Bahawalpur, Karachi

Punjab CTD and Sindh Rangers carried out intelligence-based operations

BAHAWALPUR/ KARACHI:

At least nine suspected terrorists were killed in two separate intelligence-based operations (IBOs) in southern and central Pakistan Monday night.

Five suspected terrorists from an outlawed group were killed in a gunfight with Punjab’s Counter-Terrorism Department in the Samma Satta area of Bahawalpur district, police said. The CTD team raided a compound after receiving intelligence information that some terrorists had gathered there to plan an attack.



Finding themselves cornered, the terrorists fired gunshots at the CTD raiding party, according to police. The law enforcers retaliated, killing five terrorists in the ensuing firefight. They reportedly belonged to the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

A large quantity of arms and ammunition, including hand grenades, were seized from the compound. The bodies were shifted to the Victoria Hospital of Bahawalpur for identification.

Separately, the Sindh Rangers were tipped off about the presence of some hardcore terrorists in a compound in Manghopir, on the edge of Karachi, a spokesperson for the paramilitary force said. The terrorists were plotting an attack in the city, he added.

The terrorists were asked to turn themselves in, but they opened fire on the paramilitary troops and tried to escape.

The Rangers cordoned off the hideout, engaged the terrorists in a gunfight, and called in reinforcements.

By the time the firefight ended, four terrorists lay dead in the hideout. The Rangers spokesperson said one paramilitary soldier was also wounded in the gun battle. The bodies of terrorists were shifted to an Edhi mortuary in the Sohrab Goth neighbourhood for identification. It wasn’t immediately known which group the terrorists belonged to.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, March 15^th, 2016.