ISLAMABAD
Nine militants were killed and one injured in a clash with security forces in the northeastern city of Lahore in Pakistan, on Thursday, officials said.
A police officer was also killed in the clash that lasted for ten hours as insurgents holed up in a compound - located barely 2 km from the family residence of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the town of Raiwind - used heavy weapons, including hand grenades, against the security forces, said retired Colonel Shuja Khanzada, the head of the counterterrorism ministry in the Punjab province, in a press conference.
“They [the militants] appeared to be locals,” the minister said.
Col. Shuja Khanzada said there were reports about the presence of at least two women, as well as children, inside the compound.
Local TV channels also reported that children were heard crying inside the compound.
This, he explained, was the reason security forces took such a long time to overpower the insurgents.
He declined to share further information on whether the women and children had been hostages of the slain militants.
Lahore, the country’s second largest city, has rarely witnessed such operations against militants due to their nominal presence in the city.
This was the first such clash, since the middle of June, with Taliban militants, who are on the run due to an ongoing military onslaught in lawless North Waziristan.
Since June 15, Pakistan's army has been carrying out a military operation, involving air strikes and a ground invasion, in North Waziristan, aiming to root out Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella organization of various insurgent groups in Pakistan.
Around 470 suspected militants, according to the Pakistani army, have so far been killed, while 31 soldiers have lost their lives in landmine blasts and clashes since the start of the operation.
Six killed in IED blast in northwest Pakistan
Meanwhile six people were killed and three injured in a roadside blast, on Thursday, in the northwestern town of Hangu, located 225 kilometers north of the Pakistani capital Islamabad, officials said.
City police chief Fareed Khan told reporters that the blast that hit a passenger bus was caused by an improvised explosive device (IED).
The police official said that the bomb weighed 10 kilograms and was planted in a tin oil can.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, though IEDs have frequently been used by militant groups in the region.
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