The Punjab Counter-Terrorism Department has gunned down two suspected terrorists in a raid near Dera Ghazi Khan and rounded up two others, who had managed to escape during the operation, in Rahim Yar Khan.
Acting on a tip-off, the CTD carried out the raid in Jhangi area of Vehowa tehsil in Taunsa district near Dera Ghazi Khan and killed two suspected terrorists. Their two other accomplices managed to escape taking advantage of the darkness in the area.
However, the CTD conducted a search operation, carrying out raids at 36 different locations and checking 512 people through biometric screening, eventually arresting them both in Rahim Yar Khan within 24 hours.
The arrested men, identified as Ahmed Hassan and Ghulamullah, were planning a major terrorist attack in the city of Rahim Yar Khan.
They are being subjected to more interrogation.
Sources said the suspected terrorists killed in Jhangi area were identified as Rowaid Khan and Hanif Ullah, boith residents of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Shabqadar town.
They were found in possession of a Kalashnikov, a pistol, several rounds of ammunition, explosive material, and two grenades.
The sources said the slain terrorists were involved in numerous attacks on security forces in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore and other cities.
They were now planning attacks on police and security forces in Dera Ghazi Khan.
Earlier this month, six militants riding two motorcycles attacked a checkpoint in the Jhangi area claiming the lives of a policeman and a passer-by.
The martyrs were identified as Head Constable Mazhar Khan Qaisarani and a private cook named Abdul Basit.
Another policeman, Mohammad Ramzan Khan, also suffered extensive injuries in the attack.
The attackers also took away the official weapons of the two cops.
Punjab police chief Aamir Zulfiqar Khan and Additional IGP (AIGP) South Punjab Sahabzada Shahzad Sultan took strict notice of the incident.
Syed Khurram Ali, the regional police officer (RPO) of Dera Ghazi Khan, reached the scene accompanied by a heavy contingent of police to investigate the attack on the instructions of the IGP.
In fact, the IGP himself urgently reached Dera Ghazi Khan and participated in the funeral prayers held for the martyrs.
The residents told the media that militants, who were hiding in Afghanistan for the last several years, again wanted to take over control of their area.
The terrorist outfit, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), had claimed responsibility for the attack.
In a late-night attack a day earlier, three cops had embraced martyrdom in a terrorist strike at the Sarband police station in Peshawar.
The martyrs included DSP Badhabir Sardar Hussain and his two police guards -- Irshad and Jehanzeb.
The terrorists used grenades and also resorted to firing during the attack.
K-P IGP Moazzam Jah Ansari told the media the next day that the attackers fled when the police retaliated.
The DSP was wearing a bulletproof vest but the attackers shot him in the head using a sniper weapon.
The other policemen were attacked with sniper weapons as well.
The IGP informed the media that this was for the first time terrorists had used sniper weapons in Peshawar.
He added that sniper weapons were already being used in Bannu, Lakki Marwat and Dera Ismail Khan.
This attack too was claimed by the TTP.
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