Three suicide bombers blow themselves up in Karachi

Karachi, Sep 26 (PTI) Three suicide bombers suspected of
planning an attack on a "high-profile" target in Pakistan's
southern port city blew themselves up after police surrounded
the house they were hiding in.

The suicide bombers linked to an outlawed militant outfit
with close links to Al Qaeda, detonated themselves as security
forces tried to flush them out from a building in the shanty
Baldia town on the city outskirts, police said.

The raid on the militant outfit came as Pakistan Prime
Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani reached the metropolis on an
official visit.

There was no immediate suggestion that the men were
targeting Gilani, whose motorcade was recently attacked near
the capital.

Police also recovered the body of a prominent city
transporter Shaukat Afridi, who was a supplier of fuel and
goods to the U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
forces in Afghanistan.

The Pashtun transporter was reported to have been
kidnapped on May 8 from the posh locality of Clifton and was
being held for ransom.

Police made a huge haul of 10 k.g. of explosives, two
suicide jackets, seven pistols and nine hand grenades from the
Karachi house which was badly damaged by the explosion.

Police were tipped off about the presence of the
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militant by a leader of the outfit who had
been nabbed earlier.

Initially, the militants resisted the police siege and
lobbed at least five grenades at the police, but caused no
casualties.

"The militants blew themselves up after their ammunition
was exhausted," police said.

They said four bodies were recovered from the debris of
the house, which was destroyed in the blast.

Karachi, Pakistan's commercial capital is considered a
militant hub and has witnessed large scale political and
religious violence and the raid in the city signalled that
Pakistani armed forces were spreading their dragnet to
encompass southern part of the country as well.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is one of the most feared militant
outfit and is often associated with sectarian attacks and
suicide bombings on mosques. Its fighters were trained in
camps in Afghanistan and have joined terror attacks sanctioned
by Al Qaeda.

Bodies of the slain militants were recognisable and
police said that they were wanted over the killings of several
local leaders and clerics from the minority Shiite sect.

"We have saved Karachi from death and destruction. We
know who they were and what was their target in Karachi, but
we cannot disclose it immediately," police said.