KARACHI, Nov 17: A wanted militant of a jihadi outfit, carrying a reward of Rs500,000 on his head, was shot dead on Wednesday in an exchange of fire in Saeedabad, an official of the Crime Investigation Department said.

The suspect, identified as Asim Ghafoor alias Qasim Sukkurwala, was allegedly involved in the kidnapping of US journalist Daniel Pearl. He was a close associate of Ahmed Omar Shaikh, who was sentenced to death by a court for plotting the abduction and murder of the US journalist who was kidnapped on Jan 23, 2002.

"Asim, hailing from Sukkur, was also associated with Amjad Farooqui who was killed in Nawabshah last month in an encounter with intelligence agencies," a senior police official said, adding that the suspect was affiliated with Jaish-i-Mohammad.

He said that police had received information about the presence of Asim in a house in Saeedabad on the Hub River Road. "The CID police raided the hideout on Wednesday morning where a shootout took place, which resulted in his death on the spot," the official added.

The suspect suffered four bullet wounds in his chest and face, a doctor in the Civil Hospital said after the autopsy examination. Our Correspondent in Sukkur adds: The body of Asim Ghafoor was brought to Sukkur from Karachi amid tight security and buried in the New Goth graveyard on Wednesday night.

Despite repeated requests by the mother and some close relatives, the body was not allowed to be taken to his home in the Bagh Hayat Ali Shah area. However, his mother was brought on a wheelchair to the CID police office for identification, who confirmed that the body was of her son Asim Ghafoor. Later, police allowed eight other relatives to attend the Namaz-i- Janaza.