QUETTA, July 5: Police have arrested three alleged target killers, involved in the killing of some Ulema, after heavy exchange of fire in the provincial capital.

This was disclosed on Thursday evening by Deputy Inspector General (Investigations) Hamid Shakeel at a press conference. City SP Khalid Manzoor and other senior officers were present on the occasion. “They confessed to the murder of seven important religious and other personalities in different areas of Quetta,” Mr Shakeel said.

He said that during patrolling personnel of Jinnah Town police station saw the three suspects on motorbike and began chasing them. The policemen asked the three to stop but instead of doing so they began firing on the law-enforcement personnel.

However, after an exchange of fire, the policemen managed to arrest the three alleged killers.

Mr Shakeel said the three suspects — Jahangir Haider Shah, Nadeem Abbas and Qaisar Abbas — belonged to Dera Ismail Khan and had come over to Quetta on a mission to kill people.

Soon after making the arrests, the police raided the suspects’ house in Faisal Town and recovered a motorbike, weapons, their national identity cards and some important documents.

Mr Shakeel said that during interrogation the three men confessed that they were headed for Killi Ismail area to attack an important personality. He added that they had confessed to killing Maulana Abdul Karim Mengal, Hafiz Abdul Basit, Qari Abdul Jalil, Maulana Faizullah, Qari Yasin Abbasi, Farooq Bangulzai and former Union Council nazim Saleem Jadoon.

‘Al Qaeda, Taliban’

Security forces arrested on Wednesday night 12 suspected members of Al Qaeda and Taliban from Zhob area, near Balochistan-Khyber Pakhtunkhwa border, and recovered a huge quantity of arms and ammunition.

“The arrested men include eight Turks, three Chechens and a resident of Waziristan,” a source in Zhob said.

He said that security forces deployed in the area to monitor movement of the suspected Taliban and other people intercepted a group of people who crossed into the Mughal-Kot area of Sambaza in Zhob district in a vehicle. During search, a huge quantity of arms and ammunition, including hand-grenades, machine-guns and important documents were recovered from their possession. “Turkish and Chechen suspects were handed over the authorities concerned for interrogation,” the sources said.