16 January,2009 02:28 PM IST | | PTI
Two policemen were killed and seven other security personnel, including two officials of an intelligence agency, were injured in a crackdown on Taliban militants in this southern Pakistani port city that resulted in the arrest of over 79 suspects.
The crackdown followed media reports over the past few months about the steady inroads made into Karachi by the Taliban. The militants had recently warned transporters in the city not to ferry supplies for US and NATO troops in Afghanistan.
After being shipped to Karachi, the supplies are transported overland from the city to the Afghan border. Police said more than 79 suspects were arrested and a sizeable number of sophisticated weapons were seized on Thursday following a pre-dawn raid on the hideout of terrorists from several banned religious groups in the Sohrab Goth area.
The chief of Karachi's Anti-Violent Crime Cell, Farooq Awan, and two intelligence officials were encircled by terrorists and held hostage at gunpoint during the operation.
The militants also shot all three men in the leg after ascertaining their identity. When policemen rushed to the spot on hearing the gunshots, the militants opened fire at them with sub-machine guns, killing two policemen and injuring four others.
Karachi police chief Wasim Ahmed said: "The area was a safe haven for terrorists who were planning massive terrorist activities in the city."
The operation was jointly conducted by police and an intelligence agency that had information about the presence of a large number of suspects in Sohrab Goth, Ahmed said, adding "the terrorists had been flushed out from the neighbourhood."
Police had occupied a three-storey terrorist hideout, known as Mohmand Building, at Sohrab Goth. "We have set up a police post in the building," he said.
Ahmed said police had been receiving reports for a long time that terrorist elements linked with religious groups were active in the area.
"It's a big success as we have put the terrorists on the run," he said. The population of Sohrab Goth mainly comprises Afghans and people from Waziristan and Tajikistan. Ahmed said the terrorists were also involved in criminal activities.
"The arrested suspects include a man who was involved in the kidnapping of a Karachi-based industrialist for ransom late last year," he said.
