News / Pakistan

Pakistani police kill 14 al-Qaeda militants in shootouts in Punjab

Friday, 20 May 2016 12:48 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 20 May 2016 12:48 PM ]

Pakistani police commandos stand guard outside a morgue of a hospital in Multan on May 19, 2016, where eight bodies of suspected al-Qaeda militants were brought following an operation by security forces. (AFP photo)

Pakistani authorities say the country’s police have killed 14 al-Qaeda militants in two separate shootouts in the central province of Punjab.

The police acting on intelligence killed eight al-Qaeda operatives near the city of Multan in Punjab on Wednesday, the province's counter terrorism department said in a statement on Friday.

The statement added that the security forces traced a number of accomplices who fled the first shootout to the district of Dera Ghazi Khan, killing six others on Thursday.

One of the slain men was involved in a 2010 terrorist attack on two mosques in Lahore city which claimed the lives of 97 people, the counter terrorism department said.

Some of the militants were also involved in attacks against the security forces, according to the statement.

Meanwhile, police official Shakir Ullah said three bombers on a motorcycle were killed on Friday when one of the militants accidentally detonated his booby-trapped jacket near the restive city of Peshawar, the capital of the northwestern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

The official added that the police are still trying to identify the bodies of the men.

On Wednesday, at least one policeman was killed and 10 others injured in two bomb blasts targeting a police patrol in Peshawar.

Pakistani family members stand near a person injured in a bomb blast, at a local hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, May 18, 2016. (AP photo)

Thousands of Pakistanis have lost their lives in bombings and other militant attacks since 2001, when Pakistan entered an alliance with the US in the so-called war on terror.

Late last month, pro-Taliban militants in Pakistan killed a provincial minister in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Minister of Minorities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sardar Soran Singh was killed by bike-riding militants in his native village in the Buner Valley, some 160 kilometers (100 miles) northeast of Peshawar, on April 22. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the assault.

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