KARACHI - Police claimed to have killed a close aide of Tehreek-e-Taliban’s chief Mullah Fazlullah along with five other militants in an encounter in the outskirts of the city on Saturday. District Malir police claimed that the encounter took place in Ghazi Goth, Saadi Town locality on Saturday evening. Police said that about 300 policemen, lead by District Malir police chief SSP Rao Anwar, carried out the search operation in Madina Colony, Ghazi Goth and Saadi Town on a tip-off about the presence of TTP militants.
Police said it faced massive resistance from the militants inside the Ghazi Goth during door-to-door search, however, the police force also retaliated with full force. After an exchange of fire that lasted around half an hour, six militants were killed. SSP Rao Anwar claimed that two of the six militants have so far been identified. One of them was identified as Ahmed who was the commander of TTP’s Fazalullah group. He arrived in the city for medical treatment after he was injured in a drone attack in Waziristan. Another militant was identified as commander Surat who was the close aide of Fazlullah.
The remaining four militants killed in the alleged encounter have yet to be identified. Their bodies were shifted to morgue for identification purpose. Police also claimed to have recovered four pistols and a sub machinegun (SMG) from their possession. Police claimed that the militants killed were involved in attacks on the security forces, target killings, extortion activities and other heinous crimes.
Meanwhile, Inspector General Sindh Police, Ghulam Haider Jamali said the police were focused in its targeted operation against the criminal elements and ready to face any challenge to get success.
He was addressing a workshop at a hotel here, said a statement on Saturday. He said the workshop was organised to improve professional skills of policemen and bring improvement in the Public Prosecution Services. The workshop was organised by GIZ, an international enterprise owned by the German federal government. Addressing the opening session of he second day of the workshop, head of the Programme, Katrin S Ladvig said the programme was focused on organisational framework, prosecution and human capacity-building. Moreover, police on Saturday chalked out a security plan for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf mass rally, which is scheduled to be held on Sunday (today) at Shahrah-e-Pakistan, Karachi. As per plan, 2,753 policemen, 8 SPs, 16 DSPs, 40 SHOs, 8 additional SHOs and 360 rapid response force personnel would be deployed at the venue. Six teams of bomb disposal squad would also be deployed at the PTI rally’s venue. The PTI rally is a part of election campaign ahead of the by-poll in NA-246 which will be held on April 23.