KARACHI: In what is being described as the deadliest encounter in the recent history of the metropolis, police killed 13 suspected militants in the Sohrab Goth area off the Superhighway on Monday evening.

While dozens of policemen took part in the operation, none of them suffered even a minor injury in the shootout that lasted for one and a half hours.

SSP-Malir Rao Anwar said that the police received a tip-off about the presence of a notorious Taliban commander, Khan Zaman Mehsud, in Deluxe Town, Sohrab Goth.

A heavy contingent of police cordoned off two bungalows, said to be owned by the Taliban ringleader, in Deluxe Town. On seeing the police, suspects holed up in the bungalows resorted to firing and the police retaliated.

The shootout lasted for over one hour and after the guns fell silent, police entered the bungalows and found 13 suspected militants dead.

The SSP said that two of the 13 dead belonged to Al Qaeda. The remaining 11 were associated with the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, he added.

He claimed that a would-be suicide bomber was also arrested.

Till late in the night, only two of the 13 deceased were identified as Abdullah Mehsud and Imran Bihari.

He said that some of the deceased wore police uniform.

They were allegedly involved in killing of policemen, bomb blasts, kidnapping for ransom, extortion and other crimes.

SSP Anwar — who appears to have a vast experience of supervising shootouts in which militants are gunned down in police fire while law enforcers escape unhurt — said that militant commander Khan Zaman did not arrive there. He said that

he had credible reports that he was coming to the bungalows to plan a terrorist attack in Karachi.

The police seized 15 kilograms of explosives, two Kalashnikovs assault rifles, four repeaters and as many TT pistols from their custody, said Sohrab Goth SHO Ismail Lashari.

He was reluctant to divulge the identity of the alleged would-be bomber detained in the raid and added that he had been shifted to an undisclosed location.

The area SHO said that the encounter lasted for one and a half hour in which 70 policemen took part. They all remained unhurt, he added.

The Monday incident became the deadliest encounter in the recent history of Karachi in which police killed such a high number of suspects.

After the Peshawar school carnage, the law-enforcers in Karachi have expedited their action against militants.

In a short span of six days, 26 militants, including a local commander of the TTP, have been killed by police and Rangers in several encounters in different parts of the city.

The encounters took place in Mauripur, Ghagar Phatak, Manghopir and Baldia Town areas in which 13 suspected militants were killed.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2014