Pak: Al Qaeda commander among four killed in Karachi

Islamabad, Jan 9: Four terrorists, including an Al Qaeda commander, were killed in an alleged gun battle in Pakistan's port city of Karachi, media reported on Friday.

The terrorists were well-versed with preparing suicide jackets. They were planning to target intelligence agency's office, Geo News quoted police as saying.

The shootout with terrorists took place in the city's Qayyumabad area, said Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in-charge Raja Umer Khattab. Police also seized suicide jackets and weapons from the terrorists.

Earlier on Jan 7, two convicted terrorists were hanged till death in Pakistan on Wednesday morning, media reported. The latest executions have brought the number of those hanged until death to nine.

The executions started as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif lifted the moratorium on capital punishment in the country in the aftermath of the Peshawar carnage that left some 150 people, most of them children, dead, Dawn online reported.

Prison officials had already received the death warrants for the two men a couple of days ago. The warrants were issued by anti-terrorism courts as mercy petitions of the convicts had been rejected by the president on Monday.

The convicts: Ahmed Ali alias Sheshnag and Ghulam Shabbir alias Fauji alias doctor belonged to a banned organisation.

Ahmed Ali, a resident of Shorkot, Jhang district, was handed capital punishment for killing three men: Altaf Hussain, Mohammad Nasir and Mohammad Fiaz and injuring Mohammad Pervez and Mohammad Siddique on the Railway Road in 1998.

IANS