PESHAWAR: Security forces in Mardan claimed that two terrorists were captured in a raid on Sunday during which suicide jackets and explosives were also recovered.

The officials said the raid was conducted on confirmed intelligence reports that the suspected terrorists were planning suicide attacks inside Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Mardan city.

During the preliminary questioning, the detained men Zakirullah and Faiz confirmed that they had formed two separate groups to carry out suicide attacks at the main gates of the Punjab Regimental Centre and Police Station Saddar in Mardan.

Mardan is situated in northwest Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which has seen several terrorist attacks over the past several years — many of them targeting security officials.

Pakistani Taliban militants, who have been waging a bloody insurgency against the state, routinely target police and security forces and it is not clear whether with the ongoing developments on negotiations with the government, the militants would stop their attacks.

Pakistan is on the frontlines of the US-led war on Al Qaeda. Since July 2007 it has also been gripped by the local Taliban-led insurgency, concentrated largely in the northwest.

Also, estimates say more than 40,000 people have been killed in Pakistan by Taliban and Al Qaeda-led militants.