KARACHI: Four suspected militants were killed in an ‘encounter’ with police while they were ‘chasing’ former Malir SSP Rao Anwar Ahmed soon after he came out of his residence here on Saturday.
According to Mr Anwar, as he left his residence with his security squad they realised that four suspects in a car and on a motorbike were chasing them from Gate 5 of Malir Cantonment.
When his police guards signalled the two car riders to stop, they opened fire and both of them were killed in retaliatory firing. The policemen chased the other suspects on the motorbike and killed them in an `encounter’ about half a kilometre away.
The deceased were identified as Qari Alamgir, Iqbal Mehsud, Mahir Badshah and Haider Ali.
Rao Anwar told Dawn that Qari Alamgir and Iqbal Mehsud belonged to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and hailed from Waziristan. They were involved in kidnapping for ransom and killings of policemen. They had also allegedly killed a driver of a textile mill-owner and kidnapped him last year. He was later released after paying Rs60m ransom. The suspects had also kidnapped another official of a textile mill and were involved in around 20 cases of ransom.
Qari Alamgir was also involved in attacking the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s activists in Orangi Town. Last year, police killed his four accomplices in an encounter.
The senior superintendent of police said Mahir Badshah of Swat was the Karachi chief of the Jamaat Ahrar and Haider Ali of Bajaur was associated with the same group.
They were involved in two terrorist attacks on policemen at Razzakabad which claimed the lives of several policemen.
The SSP said there were intelligence reports that the militants had planned attacks on a bus of Pakistan Steel Mills and a missionary school in Quaidabad.
He said he had also received an intelligence report that three suicide bombers were likely to attack him when he would come out of his residence in Malir Cantonment.
Rao Anwar said he had also received an intelligence report about such an attack in 2009 and had survived a suicide blast in 2012.
The police official said he believed that all militant groups had joined hands and their leaders, including Mulla Fazlullah and Khalid Khurasani, were based in Afghanistan where Indian intelligence agency RAW was supporting them to carry out terrorist acts in Pakistan.
Malir Cantonment SHO Irshad Gabol said police had seized three pistols, a Kalashnikov, explosives and grenades from the deceased suspects.
He said Rao Anwar going to meet the Sindh police chief when the encounter took place.
Police took the bodies to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre in the evening for post-mortem examination.
Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2015
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