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Pakistan militant blows self up to avoid arrest

Pakistani policemen display weapons and explosives seized from militants in Punjab Province, December 13, 2014. (Photo by AFP)

A key militant commander in Pakistan has blown himself up in order to avoid arrest during a police raid on his house in the eastern Pakistani province of Punjab.

The explosion, which was caused when the militant – identified as Habibur Rehman – detonated explosives during a counter-terrorism operation on Thursday also killed his wife and two children.

Local security officials said the raid was carried out in the Pirmahal area of the Toba Tek Singh district in Punjab Province, where police commandos launched a targeted operation on an intelligence tip-off.

The raid first triggered a shootout when Rehman started hurling hand grenades toward the security forces. At least three police officers were injured during the four-hour-long encounter, which ended when the militant finally detonated his explosives as he was surrounded by a large number of police forces.

Security forces reportedly managed to seize a large amount of arms and ammunition, including hand grenades, suicide vests and assault rifles, from the militant house.

Rehman was a key commander of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group.

According to Pakistani intelligence officials, the militant commander had been involved in subversive activities, including targeted bombings and killings across the region.

The development came days after Punjab provincial Home Minister Shuja Khanzada was killed along with 17 others in an attack by two bombers in the Attock district of Punjab earlier this month.

Pakistani paramilitary soldiers lay weapons, seized during various search operations against banned organizations, in Karachi, January 6, 2015. (Photo by AFP)

The Pakistani army has been waging a full-scale operation against militant hideouts in violence-wracked regions across the country since last June, when a deadly raid on the Karachi International Airport ended the government’s faltering peace talks with pro-Taliban militants in the country.

In another deadly militant attack on December 16, 2014, a group of pro-Taliban gunmen stormed an army-run school in the northwestern city of Peshawar and killed about 150 people, including 132 students. Some 120 students were also injured in the raid.

According to the Pakistani military, more than 2,800 militants have been killed over the past months.


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