LAHORE: The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of police said on Wednesday that it had killed four suspected militants belonging to the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and the Tehreek Taliban Pakistan in an “encounter” in Sheikhupura.

A CTD spokesman said the department acted on a tip-off that “seven or eight militants” belonging to LeJ and TTP were plotting an attack on “sensitive installations” in Sheikhupura.

A CTD team conducted a raid on a house near an oil depot in Sheikhupura and made appeals asking the militants to surrender, the spokesman added.

He said the suspects opened fire at the team, but met prompt retaliation.

“When the firing stopped, the CTD team found four suspects dead. Three to four accomplices of the militants managed to escape under cover of darkness,” he added.

Police recovered three kilograms of explosive material, detonators, two Kalashnikov rifles, two pistols and two motorcycles.

Police shifted the bodies to a morgue for identification and started a search operation to arrest the “absconding terrorists”, the spokesman said.

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2016