ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s counterterrorism police on Tuesday said five suspected militants were killed in an intelligence-based operation in the country’s Punjab province.
The operation comes amid a rise in militant violence in Pakistan, particularly in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and southwestern Balochistan provinces bordering Afghanistan.
Punjab, Pakistan’s most economically developed province, has largely been spared the levels of violence seen in those regions, though authorities have periodically reported militant activity there.
The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of the police said it carried out the operation in Attock district, which borders Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, to arrest suspected militants who were planning attacks in various parts of Punjab.
“In the ensuing exchange of fire, five terrorists belonging to Fitna Al-Khawarij were killed,” a CTD spokesperson said in a statement. “The terrorists had completed planning attacks in various areas of Punjab.”
Fitna Al-Khawarij is a term used by Pakistan’s military and government to describe militants belonging to the Pakistani Taliban, also known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
The CTD said a suicide jacket, two hand grenades, a submachine gun, ammunition and explosive materials were recovered from the militants.
A search operation was continuing in the Attock border area, while efforts to identify the slain militants were also underway, the department said.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, in separate statements, praised the police for carrying out the operation.
In March, the CTD said it had killed four suspected militants during an operation in Punjab’s Dera Ghazi Khan district.
Pakistan has witnessed a sharp increase in militant attacks in recent years, which Islamabad largely blames on armed groups operating from neighboring Afghanistan. Kabul denies allowing its territory to be used for attacks against Pakistan.
