Four Al Qaida militants killed in encounter

KARACHI

Pakistani police on Friday said they had shot dead four regional Al Qaida militants including a senior leader in an early morning encounter in the port city of Karachi.

The leader, named as “Sajjad” — also known as Kargil — was said to be a Bangladeshi who moved to Pakistan in 2009 and specialised in making IEDs and suicide jackets.

He was also the Karachi commander of Al Qaida in South Asia (AQSI), a new branch of the global militant outfit that launched last September, a local police official said.

“The Crime Investigation Department [CID] of the police raided a house in Qayyumabad neighbourhood in the eastern part of Karachi where the suspects were plotting a terrorist attack,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

Umar Khatab, a senior policeman in the CID, confirmed the killings.

In the ongoing cleanup operation against the militants at least 16 militants including the four were shot down in the last 24 hours.

The other three militants were identified as Mohammad Hashim, Yaseen alias Yasir Arafat and Shamim alias Commando.

“The gang of the four militants was involved in attacking the police and other government installations and now they were plotting to attack a senior office of a sensitive [intelligence] agency when we raided,” Umar Khatab, the CID chief told Gulf News.

In Waziristan, Sajjad had taken an oath at the hand of Asim Umar and was thus made chief of AQSI in Karachi.

After the raid commenced, the police recovered a suicide jacket, ammunition and explosives.

It was not immediately possible to confirm the details of the event with independent witnesses from the neighbourhood.

Rights activists say suspected militants who are captured are often killed in staged encounters by security forces.

Meanwhile, the police also gunned down two members of Lyari gangs during a shootout, whereas two target killers were also shot down in Nazimabad area.

On Thursday, police had raided a hideout of Taliban militants and killed at least seven militants in the Sohrab Goth area.

The violent encounters are taking place of late in this largest city of the country after the government resolved to eliminate religious and sectarian militancy in the country. The resolve came after the terrorist attack on Army Public School in Peshawar in which 150 people including 134 children were killed in December.

The militants were also carrying the revenge attacks, targeting the police in this port city. In past eight days unknown killers have gunned down eight policemen and injured many others. Two soldiers of paramilitary Rangers were also killed during an encounter in the eastern Karachi last week.