KARACHI: Seven militants, suspected to be linked to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, were shot dead in a reported encounter with police in Sohrab Goth area on Sunday afternoon.

According to Additional Inspector General Ghulam Qadir Thebo, three of the suspects killed in the exchange of fire were involved in a suicide attack in which SP Chaudhry Aslam of the Crime Investigation Department was killed on Jan 9.

One of them was the mastermind, the other did reconnaissance of the route of the police officer and the third prepared explosives-laden vehicle used in the attack.

Amin, a brother of the alleged suicide bomber Usman, was among those killed in the encounter, Malir SSP Rao Anwar said.

Police sources said that Amin was also suspected of having arranged an explosives-laden vehicle used in a recent attack on the Special Investigation Unit’s Farooq Awan in which the SSP was injured and two passersby were killed.

In the evening, four policemen and five other people were injured in a roadside bomb blast in the city’s Orangi Town area.

An improvised explosive device attached to a parked motorcycle was detonated near a police post in Frontier Colony, an official said.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2014