KARACHI - Two militants belonging to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) were killed by the Counter Terrorism Department here in Manghopir on Tuesday.

CTD officials claimed that the slain militants had linked with Afghanistan’s spy agency – NDS and belonged to the same sleeper cells of the militants dismantled in Karachi last week.

According to a CTD intelligence official, Abdul Jabbar and Daniyal were killed in an exchange of fire after police intercepted their vehicle in Manghopir.

The official said that Abdul Jabbar, who had been appointed as commander of banned outfit’s Karachi chapter by ring leader Mufti Shakir, had links with the Afghan intelligence agency, NDS. Last week, CTD had dismantled two ‘sleeper cells’ of banned militant outfits in Karachi by killing three members and arresting four others during separate predawn raids in parts of the metropolis.  Afghanistan intelligence agency-backed militant group had assigned the militants the task to carry out reconnaissance for their upcoming targets in Karachi before dispatching the suicide bombers.

CTD official said that they acted upon information received from militants arrested last week.

“We had a tip off that the militants are on their way to Karachi from Balochistan,” he said, and added, “The militants were arriving in the city to carry out major terror activities. including targeting jamaat khanas, imambargahs, shrines, police training centers and prominent figures from other intelligence agencies.” The officials said the militants were provided with suicide bombs and jackets. One of their companions, however, managed to escape under the cover of fire during an exchange of fire. The CTD police also claimed to have recovered two pistols from their possession. The officials said that the pistols recovered had earlier been used in the target killing of a police sub-inspector Riaz in Saeedabad last year. Cases were registered and further investigation was underway.

Two more bodies fished out of sea

The rescuers on Tuesday recovered the bodies of two more people drowned in a beach while picnicking on the Independence Day.

Five people, belonging to the same family, had drowned off Hawkes Bay beach on Independence Day when the family from New Karachi area reached the beach for a picnic.

Police said that the incident occurred when initially two teenage girls, who were later identified as sixteen-year-old Dua Fatima and Hamna Imran, 14, drowned while bathing in the sea and the other family members jumped into to rescue them.

The three others, who had jumped into sea to rescue them, were later identified as Fatima’s father Zakir Hussain, 42, Osama, 20, and Amin, 22.

The rescuers, however, managed to recover three of them on Monday – two of them – Zakir and his daughter Dua Fatima had died while the third Hamza, 17, was in an unconscious condition while the bodies of the remaining two – Amin and Hamna Imran remained missing and the rescuers recovered their bodies on Tuesday.

All the bodies were shifted to Civil Hospital, Karachi and later handed over to their families for burial.

Police said that a large number of people had reached the beach for a picnic on Independence Day despite the provincial government’s ban on swimming in the sea.