LAHORE: The Punjab Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) on Saturday claimed to have killed a terrorist allegedly linked to over 50 murders and an attack on an intelligence agency office in Faisalabad.
A spokesperson for the CTD, in a statement, said that the terrorist identified as Ghazanfar Nadeem was carrying Rs2.5 million as bounty on his head and had been hiding since 2011.
According to a CTD statement, an intelligence-based operation (IBO) was carried out in Chiniot and during the CTD action, the alleged terrorist and his accomplice resisted, leading to an exchange of fire between CTD personnel and the “terrorists”. Both were killed in the exchange of fire.
During the operation, law enforcement recovered modern weapons and explosives from the hideout where he was located.
Police are trying to identify the other slain accomplice of the terrorist.
The statement noted that the terrorist operated under various aliases within his network and had been responsible for the targeted killing of multiple people as well as attack on the office of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in Faisalabad.
The spokesperson further said that Ghazanfar was the mastermind of the terrorism based on religious hatred.
“Ghazanfar Nadeem alias Khalid Habib was known by various aliases. The terrorist was involved in 11 major terrorist attacks including an attack on a sensitive institution in Faisalabad. The terrorist also carried out a communal target killing including a suicide attack in Dera Ismail Khan”, he added.
The CTD said that the elimination of the figure was expected to result in a noticeable decrease in terrorist activities.
The CTD has been undertaking operations province-wide in response to terror threats, making arrests and neutralising criminal elements through IBOs in recent months.
Earlier this month, the CTD had arrested nine suspects associated with defunct organisations during various intelligence-based operations (IBOs) across the province.
According to an official statement by the CTD, officials had conducted 70 IBOs in various parts of the province. During the operations, the CTD had interrogated 69 suspects, resulting in the arrest of nine.
The statement had disclosed that two of the arrested suspects were associated with the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and were detained in Lahore.
