- Title: PAKISTAN-MILITANTS Pakistani raid killed senior al Qaeda figure, official says
- Date: 2nd July 2015
- Summary: LAHORE, PAKISTAN (JULY 1, 2015) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** NEWS BRIEFING BY PUNJAB HOME MINISTER SHUJA KHANZADA REPORTERS (SOUNDBITE) (Urdu) PUNJAB HOME MINISTER SHUJA KHANZADA SAYING: "At 12:30 on the morning of June 29, our intelligence agencies raided this place. ISI (Pakistan's Prime spy agency) led the raid, and was supported by our Counter Ter
- Embargoed: 17th July 2015 13:00
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- Location: Pakistan
- Country: Pakistan
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA4BBRZ3IGI2DJ0Z993U8II65RR
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: The head of al Qaeda in Pakistan was among four militants killed in a police raid near the eastern city of Lahore this week, a provincial official said on Wednesday (July 1).
Shuja Khanzada, home minister for Punjab province, named the al Qaeda leader only as "Abdali" in a news conference and said he and three other operatives were planning an attack on government figures.
"At 12:30 on the morning of June 29, our intelligence agencies raided this place. ISI (Pakistan's Prime spy agency) led the raid, and was supported by our Counter Terrorism Department force. As soon as they opened the door, they saw two men were standing there. They first of all, neutralized them; they are both injured and are now in our custody. After that, there was retaliatory fire from inside, in which a soldier from our intelligence department was injured. He is fine now. There was an exchange of fire."
"Then an inner door opened, and a man ran out towards our forces. Reacting very quickly, our forces opened fire, and he was hit. Meanwhile, he activated his suicide jacket and blew himself up. The exchange of fire went on for around 25 minutes, and the other three men in the room were also killed," Khanzada said.
He said one of those killed in the raid was Abdali, the head of al Qaeda in Pakistan.
"Their leader who was giving them the briefings, who was leading the entire team, was the head of al Qaeda in Pakistan. His name was Abdali," he told reporters.
A huge cache of weapons including AK-47s, rocket launchers and suicide vests and laptops was seized in the raid, police said at the time.
An al Qaeda presence remains in Pakistan since the killing of top leader Osama bin Laden in a 2011 raid by U.S. forces in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad.
Many Islamist militants from the western region near Afghanistan have fled to other parts of the country, officials say, as security forces press on with ground and air offensives in North Waziristan.
Khanzada said Afghanistan and Pakistan were co-operating with each other in intelligence sharing, but did not specify if this raid was the result of information sharing.
"When Pakistan and Afghanistan talk, we discuss terrorists on this side, as well as terrorists on that side. Now, recently, we have become one with Afghanistan. Our intelligence agencies are sharing information with each other. This is a very big development, which has followed the visit of the Prime Minister (to Kabul). Our army chief also went there and took steps in this connection, after which the terrorists have no place left any more. In Pakistan the space has already been squeezed out from them, but now even Afghanistan is not going to allow them to get away," he said.
The Pakistan army says hundreds of militants have been killed in recent weeks. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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