Seven pro-Taliban militants have been killed in clashes with Pakistani security forces in the country’s southern port city of Karachi, police sources say.
The militants from the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) were gunned down on Friday as police attacked their suspected hideout in Karachi’s eastern neighborhood of Gulshan-e-Buner, top police official Rao Anwar said.
“Police asked the militants to surrender, but they opened fire, after which police responded,” Anwar noted, adding, “Seven terrorists were killed in the exchange of fire.”
Security guards also confiscated a large number of weapons at the scene, Anwar said.
Karachi, which is home to numerous ethnic groups, has been hit by terrorist attacks as well as clashes between rival ethnic and political factions for the past two decades.
Pro-Taliban militants have carried out numerous attacks against Pakistani security forces and civilians, and managed to spread their influence in various parts of the country.
Pakistan’s army has been engaged in an offensive against the militants in the North Waziristan tribal region since June.
The operation came following a raid by the militants on Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport on June 8, in which at least 39 people, including all 10 gunmen, were killed.
On October 29, the Pakistani army spokesman, Major General Asim Saleem Bajwa, said the months-long battle in North Waziristan had been a success, as the militant death toll in the region hit 1,100.
Thousands of Pakistanis have lost their lives in bombings and other militant attacks since 2001, when Islamabad entered an alliance with Washington in the so-called war on terror. More than 4,000 Pakistani police and soldiers have reportedly been killed so far.
MSM/MKA/MHB
