Karachi: DG Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Lt. Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa said Karachi operation will be continued till complete eradication of terrorism.

Addressing a news conference here on Friday, he said that terrorists' havens have been washed out from the country, which helped reduce terrorism to a large extent.

Asim Saleem Bajwa said more than 13,000 intelligence based operations have so far been conducted countrywide against terrorists.

He said the operation Zarb-e-Azb helped in restoration of peace in the country. He added the successes achieved in operation Zarb-e-Azb are being acknowledged at international level.

The DG ISPR said that Rangers conducted about 7,000 operations in Karachi.

He said Al Qaeda sub-Continent and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi carried out major acts of terrorism in Karachi.

He said about 6000 criminals have been arrested and handed over to police including three extremely dangerous terrorists during Karachi operation.  

He claimed that Pakistan has arrested 97 al-Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militants, including three commanders, in Karachi and foiled a planned attack to break U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl's killer out of jail.

The men are accused of involvement in major attacks on two Pakistani air bases, the Karachi airport, several regional intelligence headquarters and on police installations between 2009 and 2015, the military said.

The LeJ's Naeem Bokhari and Sabir Khan, as well as Farooq Bhatti, deputy chief of al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), were captured by Pakistani forces in recent raids Bajwa said.

"Our conclusion is that all of the terrorist groups are trying to cooperate with each other in order to carry out terrorist attacks," he told a news conference.

The LeJ and AQIS had been working "in collusion" with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, Bajwa added.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, an Islamist group whose sectarian ideology is closely aligned with Islamic State, once enjoyed the backing of Pakistan's powerful spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence.

Bajwa declined to give details of the raids, including their timing.

Several of those arrested, including Bokhari, were in the advanced stages of planning a jailbreak attempt on the Hyderabad Central Jail, Bajwa said.

Khalid Omar Sheikh, who kidnapped and killed the Wall Street Journal's Daniel Pearl in 2002, is being held at that jail and was to be released during the raid, he said.

Six suicide bombers had been enlisted in the attack plan, in addition to 19 involved in facilitating it, Bajwa said. More than 350 kg (772 lb) of explosives had been recovered from a building believed to be a hideout, he said.

Video images of the building showed blue plastic barrels filled with explosives, washing machines that had been used to transport arms and ammunition, long lengths of detonating cord and dozens of ball bearings.

The footage also showed several rifles that Bajwa said had been stolen from police in earlier targeted attacks.

"This plan was 90 percent ready for execution," he added.