Four ‘Daesh terrorists’ killed in North Waziristan

PESHAWAR/ LAHORE: The Counter-Terrorism Department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police on Saturday said its special team along with personnel of security forces killed four members of the Islamic State or Daesh during an action near the Afghan border in North Waziristan.

An official said the CTD Bannu region, while acting on a tip off about the presence of terrorists coming from across the border, conducted an operation in Dardoni area in Ghulam Khan.

The official said the terrorists opened fire on the police commandos that was retaliated. An encounter took place for around one hour during which four terrorists were killed, he added.

The CTD officials said the slain IS members included a local commander of IS KP Muhammad Daud, Abdullah and Muhammad Laaiq. The name of the fourth slain man could not be ascertained.

The official said explosives and ammunition had been recovered from the deceased.

Four terrorists, who were shot dead on Friday in an operation conducted by CTD in Jaroba area the previous night, were identified on Saturday.

District Police Officer Muhammad Umar Khan Gandapur told The News that the CTD Mardan Range and the local police carried out an operation after credible information about the presence of terrorists. He said the terrorists opened fire on the CTD and police personnel, which was promptly returned.

As a result, four terrorists identified as Latif Khan alias Ayubi of Mashokhel in Peshawar, Muhammad Shahzeb alias Huzaifa of Badaber, Peshawar, Muhammad Adil alias Umair of Badaber, Peshawar, were killed during the operation in Jaroba area.

He said the terrorists were associated with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and had carried out various subversive activities in the province.

He said one terrorist named Zahidullah belonged to Afghanistan, who was presently living in Charsadda district.

The official said that Latif Ayubi and his another associate had recorded videos of the army training centre in Attock on their mobile phones. They had sent these videos to Qari Midrar alias Asim Zafar in Afghanistan.

The DPO claimed that the terrorists were also involved in the hand-grenade attack on the Badaber police mobile van in which three cops named Inspector Farid Khan and constables Khawas Khan and Mir Alam had sustained injuries.

He added that the terrorists had also attacked the Badaber Police Station, Shahabkhel Police Post with hand-grenades besides other terrorist activities in various parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The Punjab CTD, meanwhile, arrested 4 terrorists. According to the Punjab CTD spokesman, the force conducted raids in various districts across the province to effectively deal with any untoward incident of terrorism. During 30 intelligence-based operations, 30 suspects were interrogated and 4 suspected terrorists were arrested, he said and added that weapons, explosives and other prohibited materials were recovered from their possession. The arrested terrorists included Danish, Muhammad Raziq Afridi, Muhammad Muzaffar Mehmood and Hafiz Zahid Mehmood, he said and added that they all belong to various banned religious organisations, including Al-Qaeda, TTP and other banned organisations. He said that four FIRs were registered against the arrested persons.