350 ‘militants’ held, 130 killed in Pak Army raids
ISLAMABAD: Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif gave the go-ahead for a military clean-up in his province as Pakistani security forces continued to hunt, arrest and kill suspected militants across the country. The move came on Sunday after a meeting between Sharif and military commanders in Lahore.
As many as 130 suspected terrorists have been killed and more than 350 people arrested across Pakistan in the last four days.
Pakistan’s counter-terrorism forces killed five militants in an overnight raid and seized weapons and explosives from their hideout in Punjab province, while more than 300 people, mostly Afghans, were arrested in the region as part of heightened security measures following a suicide bombing at Lal Shahbaz Qalandar Sufi shrine in Sindh province that claimed 88 lives last week, Punjab police spokesman Niyab Haider said.
Haider said the militants opened fire when the police raided their hideout. Five militants were killed in the firefight, while four escaped. He said maps recovered from the raid show the gang was planning attacks on shrines and an air base in Multan.
At least 11 Afghan terrorists were also killed in the country’s restive northwest tribal region during a gun battle with the security forces, security officials said on Sunday. During the gunfight at Sapperkot and Para Chamkani in Kurram Agency, two soldiers were also wounded. The terrorists were trying to enter Kurram Agency via Khyber Agency from Afghanistan when they were intercepted by the security forces and heavy exchange of fire took place, officials said.
The Inter-Services Public Relations claimed on Saturday that the army targeted a training camp of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar near the Pak-Afghan border in areas adjacent to Mohmand and Khyber Agency, reportedly overseen by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar’s deputy commander Adil Bacha. The group on Sunday claimed that its leaders Adil Bacha and Abdul Rahman Baba were alive. Meanwhile, as Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan at Chaman remains closed for the third consecutive day on Sunday, authorities issued shoot-at-sight orders for those found trying to cross over. The Friendship Gate was closed on Friday in the wake of the suicide attack on the shrine. As a result, transit trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan remained suspended.