GUJRAT: At least six alleged terrorists belonging to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) were killed in an intelligence-based operation conducted by a team of the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) on Saturday night.

According to a CTD spokesman, the most wanted terrorist on Red Book, Muhammad Suhaib of Sargodha, was among the dead.

He said the CTD district officer of Gujrat got information that some eight to nine terrorists belonging to the TTP and Jamaatul Ahrar were present near the area of the Shadiwal Power Station and they were ready to attack a sensitive installation early in the morning.

He said that since the CTD had been chasing the network for quite some time, a team set up a picket on Upper Jhelum Canal bridge near Shadiwal Power Station.

He said that about 11pm, eight to nine people on three motorcycles appeared coming from Shadiwal and opened fire when the CTD personnel asked them to stop.

He said that the CTD personnel returned fire, killing six terrorists on the spot. Three others escaped.

The spokesman identified the dead as Muhammad Suhaib, Abdul Muqeem, Muhammad Faisal Nisar, Muhammad Usman of Sargodha, Abdul Azeem and Rauf Ahmad of Muzaffargarh.

He said that these terrorists were proclaimed offenders and were involved in several bomb blasts in Lahore, including Ferozepur Road and Bedian Road blasts of 2017 in which dozens of innocent citizens were killed.

He said that Suhaib was the mastermind of Brigadier Zahoor Qadri’s murder in Sargodha.

This network was planning to carry out several more suicide attacks.

The CTD team recovered two suicide jackets, a Klashnikov with cartridges, one pump action gun, three pistols of 30 bore, five hand grenades along with striker assemblies, two motorcycles, five detonators and maps of important installations.

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2018