LAHORE: The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of police claimed on Saturday that it had killed five suspected members of the banned Al Qaeda in an ‘encounter’ in Sheikhupura.

According to the department’s spokesman, CTD personnel were taking Kashif, a suspected member of Al Qaeda wanted in a number of terrorism cases in Punjab, from Lahore to Sheikhupura to help them seize an arms cache. As soon as the police party reached the jurisdiction of the Factory Area police station in Sheikhupura district, “at least seven militants opened fire on it probably in an attempt to free Kashif”.

The CTD personnel returned fire and, in the ensuing ‘encounter’, Kashif and four attackers were killed. The other assailants managed to escape under cover of darkness, the spokesman added.

He identified the dead attackers as Umar Farooq, Qari Naveed, Syed Rohail and Imran, all belonging to Al Qaeda. Umar Farooq was involved in “high-profile sectarian killings” and his name was included in the Punjab CTD’s red book, a list of 110 most wanted terrorists, he added.

The spokesman said a large number of arms and ammunition, including two Kalashnikovs, two pistols, two hand-grenades and a large amount of explosive material, were seized.

Police took the bodies to hospital and launched an investigation into the encounter.

Earlier in July, chief of the proscribed Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, Malik Ishaq, his two sons and 11 terrorists were killed in a ‘gunbattle’ at Shahwala in, Muzaffargarh district.

A CTD party was taking Malik Ishaq, his two sons and four accomplices to a house to help it recover weapons and explosives when militants attacked the police team to free them.

Police retaliated, leading to the elimination of Malik Ishaq, his sons and 11 `terrorists’.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2015

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