Pakistani police kill eight Taliban militants in Karachi

Pakistani police on Wednesday killed eight Tehreek-e-Taliban militants, including a top commander, during clashes in Karachi in the southern Sindh province.

Pakistani police on Wednesday killed eight Tehreek-e-Taliban militants, including a top commander, during clashes in Karachi in the southern Sindh province.

Bodies of alleged militants killed in an operation by security forces are tended to by workers form the Chhipa Welfare Association, at a mortuary, in Karachi, Pakistan, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2017. Rao Anwar, a police official in Karachi, said eight Taliban-linked militants were killed in the raid. Pakistan said it will send paramilitary forces to crack down on Islamic militants in the Punjab province, a move that the ruling party of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had long rejected because of opposition among his Islamist supporters. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan) (AP)

Senior Superintendent police Rao Anwar told reporters that the police killed the terrorists after an exchange of gunfire with them in Malir this morning.

“TTP commander Gul Zaman and another TTP militant Taj Arif Lala, who was wanted in many cases of target killings and kidnappings in the city, were among those killed,” he said.

Anwar, an encounter specialist who has conducted several similar operations against terrorists, said the police had carried out the operation after getting intelligence reports about Gul Zaman’s presence in the area.

Read: Pakistan forces launch anti-terrorism drive

“A heavy exchange of firing took place and a 16-year-old boy was also killed. The boy was apparently being trained by them to carry out a suicide attack,” Anwar added.

He said a large cache of weapons was recovered from the militants, in addition to bombs and a laptop.

The security agencies have launched a nationwide crackdown on terrorists after a suicide bomber killed 88 people and wounded 200 others at the Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine in Sehwan in Sindh last week.