Rangers kill 7 militants in Karachi

BIG CACHE OF WEAPONS AND EXPLOSIVES RECOVERED IN RAID, AUTHORITIES SAY

Seven militants who were plotting rocket, grenade and suicide attacks in Pakistan’s biggest city Karachi have been killed in two raids by paramilitary rangers, a spokesman for the force said yesterday.

The raids, which began on Monday night and continued yesterday morning, also saw the recovery of a major cache of weapons and explosives.

Police and rangers since 2013 have been carrying out a major clean-up operation in the city which has reduced the level of violent crime.

But critics accuse them of staging firefights to carry out hundreds of extrajudicial killings, and neither the death toll nor the identity of those killed in the latest raids could be immediately verified.

‘Fierce resistance’

The first took place in the Mominabad shanty town in the city’s west and was met by fierce resistance, according to a statement by the rangers.

It said four militants were killed, including one who blew himself up, while another was arrested.

Automatic weapons, about 16 kilograms of explosives, suicide vests containing seven kilograms of explosives and 500 kilograms of metal nuts and bolts were recovered from the hideout.

“There were authentic intelligence reports that the terrorists were plotting to use the explosives to carry out a big terrorist attack in Karachi,” the statement said.

Three more militants including another suicide bomber who blew himself up were killed in a second raid on Tuesday morning, the statement said. One ranger was injured.

The rangers recovered rockets, six suicide vests, rifles, automatic weapons, 60 kilograms of explosives and three improvised explosive devices. Pakistan has been battling a home-grown Islamist insurgency which flared following the US-led invasion of neighbouring Afghanistan in 2001.

Initially confined to the western border areas, it later spread to major cities and has claimed thousands of civilian lives since 2004.

Last June ten Taliban militants lay siege to Karachi airport, killing 27 people. The military responded by launching a major offensive in the North Waziristan tribal district, considered a bastion of Taliban and Al Qaida militants.