Punjab crackdown against extremists kills ten militants

At least ten militants have been gunned down in different parts of the province in crackdown against extremists after Lahore blast killed at least 74 people, local media reported on Wednesday.

In an encounter on Lahore’s Raiwind Road, police personnel killed five terrorists while another five were gunned down in Muzaffargarh and Rajanpur.

According to the details, CIA raided a house in LDA Avenue Society prompting an exchange of fire that lasted for one and a half hour. Three of the five killed were identified by names Khan Waheed, Nasir Iqbal and Junaid Zahoor.

Personnel seized two Kalashnikovs, three pistols, ten grenades, ten time devices and maps from the site. Sources privy to Punjab Police stated that the killed persons were wanted in dozens of cases including missile attack on Kakul academy and kidnapping of General Majeed Malik’s son-in-law.

Earlier, law enforcers detained more than 200 people and questioned thousands as authorities hunted down those behind the Easter Sunday bombing in Lahore which killed 74 people, including children, the Punjab provincial law minister said on Tuesday.

More than 5,000 people were searched and interrogated and most of them were allowed to go, but some 216 were apprehended for further investigations,” Rana Sanaullah told reporters in Lahore.

He said that at least 56 intelligence operations were carried out jointly by police, paramilitary, troops and intelligence agents within 24 hours after the blast. Security for 550 churches in the province was increased, he said, and a five-member team was tasked with investigating the attack.

Hundreds were injured when explosives packed with ball bearings ripped through crowds near a children s play area in the park in an operation claimed by the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar faction of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif both vowed to bring those behind the attack to justice.