Karachi, July 28: Three Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants, including the mastermind behind an attack on Chinese engineers last year, were killed in an encounter in the southern port city of Karachi, officials said on Monday.
Raja Umer Khattab, a Senior Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) official, said the operation was carried out Sunday night jointly by the CTD and personnel of intelligence agencies, Dawn reported.
“The teams raided a house in the Manghopir area in Karachi,” he said.
He said that terrorists opened fire when they spotted the police teams approaching them, triggering a gunfight that lasted over an hour.
All three terrorists were killed during the operation, he said, adding that they belonged to the TTP. A suicide jacket, three grenades, a Kalashnikov rifle, two pistols and a large cache of ammunition were recovered from the site, he added.
Additional Inspector-General of Police, Counter-Terrorism Department, Azad Khan, said the terrorist, who carried a Rs 20 million bounty for plotting the 2024 Liberty Textile attack targeting Chinese nationals, was among those killed during the operation.
The TTP militant, identified as Zafran, was also linked to the Karachi Police Office assault.
On November 5 last year, a private security guard opened fire and injured two Chinese nationals in a textile mill in Karachi. The guard fled after the attack. At that time, investigators had suspected that it was a targeted attack.
Pakistan has seen a sharp rise in terrorist attacks, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces, since the TTP called off its ceasefire with the government in November 2022.
The TTP, also known as the Pakistan Taliban, was set up as an umbrella group of several militant outfits in 2007. Its main aim is to impose its strict brand of Islam across Pakistan.
The group has been blamed for several deadly attacks across Pakistan, including an attack on army headquarters in 2009, assaults on military bases and the 2008 bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad. (PTI)
