Failed attempt: Four militants killed as Rao Anwar escapes another attack

Suspects opened fire when former Malir SSP's convoy tried to intercept them.

KARACHI: Four suspected militants were shot dead while they were allegedly trying to attack former Malir SSP Rao Anwar's convoy on Saturday.

The exchange of fire between the police and the militants took place after Anwar and his convoy left his house in Malir Cantonment. They were on their way to the Central Police Office when they tried to intercept suspicious persons on a motorcycle and a car who were tracking Anwar's movements.

According to Anwar, the militants resorted to indiscriminate fire at his convoy but he remained unhurt as he was travelling in an armoured personnel carrier. He claimed, however, that his guards retaliated and killed two militants in the exchange of fire, chasing down two more suspects and shooting them as well. A car, a motorcycle, arms and explosive devices were seized from their possession.

"We intercepted them as a precaution since we had received intelligence reports about a possible attack, but before we could check them, they attacked us," Anwar told The Express Tribune. "My men retaliated with full force and killed them."

The bodies were shifted to the Edhi morgue in Sohrab Goth after medico-legal formalities were completed at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre. They were later identified as Qari Alamgir, Mir Badshah, Haider Ali and Iqbal Mehsud. "They were trained militants who had arrived here from Waziristan," claimed Anwar. "We believe that they were also accompanied by three suicide bombers who were to target my convoy."

Anwar said that the suspects were involved in various cases of terrorism, targeted killings of police personnel and kidnapping businessmen, adding that they were associated with Tehreek-e-Taliban splinter group Jamaatul Ahrar.

Anwar and his team have killed over a hundred suspected militants since the Karachi operation began on September 5, 2013. However, this is the second such encounter he has been involved in after being removed from his post following a controversial press conference in which he claimed to have arrested two Muttahida Qaumi Movement workers with links to India's spy agency, RAW.

On May 2, Anwar and his men gunned down five suspected militants when his convoy came under attack while he was on his way to visit the spot where Steel Town DSP Abdul Fateh Sangri had been killed a day earlier.



Published in The Express Tribune, June 14^th, 2015.