Pakistani troops battle terror suspects
Paramilitary troops today fought a four-hour gunbattle with suspected terrorists holed up in a house in southern Pakistan.
Two men were arrested and another was killed, officials said.
An intelligence official said authorities had information that al-Qaida suspects had been hiding inside the house in Nawabshah, a town about 200 kilometres (125 miles) northeast of the main southern city of Karachi, but their identities and nationalities were not immediately clear.
Two men who had tried to flee were arrested. They were led away in blindfolds by intelligence officials, said local police official Ismail Jamali. One of the men was injured in the gunbattle, he said.
A paramilitary official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said another suspect was killed in the siege, which lasted four hours.
He said the man had shouted in Urdu, the main language in Pakistan, that he’d prefer death to capture. The suspect reportedly pointed to the sky and shouted: “I fulfilled my promise to Allah.”
One woman and two children were also taken from the house. Firefighters were called to put out a blaze in one room of the house. The fire broke out during the gunbattle.
After a search, officials left the house carrying three boxes. It was not immediately clear what they contained.
Interior Ministry officials were not immediately able to confirm the report.
Pakistan is a key ally of the United States in its war against terrorism and has arrested more than 600 al Qaida suspects, including several senior figures in the terror network. Many of them have been handed over to the US authorities.
