KARACHI: Police claimed to have killed four militants linked with the militant Islamic State group (IS) here on Monday afternoon. One of them was allegedly involved in an assassination attempt on Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai and other terrorist attacks in Karachi and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The alleged encounter took place in an under-construction housing scheme off Superhighway, according to the officials.

Malir Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Rao Anwar Ahmed Khan told Dawn that police had received information from an intelligence agency about the presence in the area of some militants previously belonging to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and now associated with IS. They were planning a major terrorist attack in the Quaidabad area after Eidul Azha, he said.

When Malir police raided an under-construction house in Scheme-33, the suspects opened fire on them and tried to flee. A heavy exchange of fire took place in which all the four suspects were killed on the spot.

Police say one of the militants was involved in attempt on Malala’s life

The SSP identified one of the dead militants as Khursheed Iqbal, who was a ‘commander’ of the TTP’s Swat group and later joined IS. He was a cousin of TTP Swat chief Mullah Fazlullah.

The SSP said there were reports that Fazlullah, now living in Afghanistan and allegedly carrying out terrorist attacks in Pakistan from there, had developed a nexus with IS.

“Khursheed Iqbal was involved in the killing of army soldiers, assassination attempt on the life of Malala Yousafzai [in Swat] and a bomb attack on policemen in Quaidabad, Karachi,” SSP Anwar claimed, adding that Khursheed’s brother Anwar Iqbal had been sentenced to death for attacking Malala.

His two other brothers were killed by security forces while the third was arrested in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Sachal police SHO Shakir Ali told Dawn that the arms and ammunition seized from the possession of the dead militants would be sent to the police’s forensic lab to ascertain if these were used in previous terrorist attacks in Karachi.

Their bodies were shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities.

Police surgeon Dr Aijaz Khokhar told Dawn that the deceased were aged between 30 and 35 years and sustained bullet wounds in their heads and chests.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2017