Pakistani Police Kill 14 Al-Qaeda Militants in Punjab


TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Pakistani authorities said that 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, Press TV reported.

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.