Karachi: The Crime Investigation Department (CID) on Thursday arrested three terrorists of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi after a brief shootout, but three militants managed to flee.
The arrested men were transporting a huge quantity of explosives.
A senior CID officer told Gulf News that the arrested men included Shaukat Sardar alias Usman alias Usama who was an activist of Lashkar, an extremist group that was banned in 2002 for its alleged links to Al Qaida.
Inamullah alias Barood, and Tawakul alias Waziri belonged to the Tehreek.
The police officer said that the accused were carrying 30 kilograms of explosive in an autorickshaw from Baloch Colony when the police team intercepted them. Instead of stopping, they started shooting at the police, but were overpowered. The explosives were hidden in secret chambers of the autorickshaw. Hundreds of bullets were also recovered besides a TT pistol and two 9mm pistols.
The police said that three suspects who were covering their arrested accomplices managed to escape as they were riding on motorcycles and were behind the autorickshaw.
The arrested men identified their fleeing accomplices as Bashir Khan Mehsud, Masudullah and Azam.
Meanwhile, paramilitary rangers carried crackdowns in different parts of the city and arrested seven suspects. Based on intelligence reports, the Rangers raided Green Town and arrested four suspects, including an activist of a political party. Another raid was carried out at Azeem Pura, where three suspects were arrested.
Karachi, despite continuous raids and arrests, witnessed killings as unknown attackers opened fire on a police van killing at least one police official and a woman were killed. Another policeman was critically injured.
The police said that there were three attackers riding on motorcycles.
