Karachi: CID, terrorists exchange fire; car-load of explosives seized

KARACHI: At the end of a heavy gunfight with suspected Taliban militants in Surjani Town here on Saturday night the Crime Investigation Department (CID)of police seized a car-load of explosives thwarting a major bombing bid, Geo News reported.

Reportedly the CID personnel, who, following a tip-off, raided an area in Surjani town in search of an outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) hideout, met with heavy resistance as suspected terrorists used heavy as well as long-barrel automatic weapons against them.

A sub-inspector of police, Khalid Saeed, a head constable, Punnun Khan, and an approver, Gul Aslam, who came in the line of fire for not only not having enough cover but also for having been caught off-guard, took hits at the very outset of the clash. Reportedly they were sitting in an police vehicle.

An alleged terrorists was also detained after the gun-battle.

The redeeming part of the ordeal was that amid the fierce gunfight, the CID, despite suffering two early non-fatal casualties, seized a car with explosives loaded in its trunk saving the city from a major terrorism.

The casualties were shifted to hospital, where the injured approver succumbed to the wounds caused by the shots fired from his own comrade(s) guns. Hospital sources later told Geo News that the constable, was out of danger but the sub inspector was still critical.

The bomb disposal squad after a tremendous effort defused a probable mega improvised explosive device (IED), the sources said. According to bomb-defusers there were at least five IEDs including a couple of pressure cooker and two water-cooler bombs wired together into one big explosive device.

It is mention-worthy that the raid was conducted on the base of information the CID reamed out of four TTP suspects held a day earlier and the approver, the CID brought with them to identify the militant den, was one of them.

Later, Senior Superintendent of CID Police, Chaudhry Aslam told media the approver, Gul Aslam, who died in the encounter was a confirmed TTP activist as well as the mastermind of Abbas Town blast.

He further added that the IEDs the CID got hold of were to be used in bombing Abbasi Shaheed Hospital as well as Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM)headquarter Nine Zero in Karachi.

According to SSP Aslam, many police vehicles, which the CID men used for cover, were turned to junk as the terrorists riddled them with bullets fired from large bore guns.