Daily Times

SHEIKHUPURA: Seven extremists were killed in a shootout in a Sheikhupra village when the police raided the group suspected of launching attacks on security posts, officials said on Sunday.

Gunfire erupted between police and 10 suspected militants early on Sunday morning in a house where the group was holed up. Police said the seven dead were killed by bullets from their own men. “When the firing stopped, seven terrorists were found dead by the firing of their own accomplices and the remaining escaped in the darkness of the night,” a police statement said.

The shootout occurred in a village in the Sheikhupura District, about 56 kilometres (35 miles) west of Lahore.

Police said the militants belonged to the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the banned sectarian group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ). They were accused of planning attacks on security posts and law enforcement agencies in Punjab.

The suspicious encounter took place in Chak Rasala-4 village near Sheikhupura. The police found five kilograms of explosive material, detonators, hand grenades, three Kalashnikovs, four pistols, 300 bullets, three motorcycles and maps of important installations in Lahore and Sheikhupura at the crime scene.

Rights activists have blamed the police for staging raids to kill suspects they fear could be freed if tried in a court. The government launched a countrywide campaign against militancy called the National Action Plan in 2015 after a deadly Taliban attack on a Peshawar school killed more than 150 people, mostly children.

The LeJ group has claimed responsibility for some of the most brazen attacks on various sects.