LAHORE: Four suspected militants were shot dead near Gujranwala on Tuesday.

According to a spokesman for the Counter Terrorism Department, the Gujranwala district police officer received information that seven militants belonging to banned Al Qaeda were on their way to Lahore from Sialkot.

He said a police team intercepted the suspects near Aimanabad, asked them to surrender, but they opened fire at police officials. Policemen returned fire. When the firing stopped, four terrorists were found killed by their accomplices and three others managed to escape, he added.

He said police recovered a car, a motorcycle and 1kg of explosives with ball-bearings, three pistols of 30 bore, one AK-47 rifle, two rockets and four hand-grenades from the scene. The spokesman said the suspects had planned to attack important government installations.

Published in Dawn, May 18th, 2016