KARACHI, (AA): Police killed the wife and two children of a suspected militant in an alleged exchange of fire in northeastern Pakistan’s Punjab province on Thursday, police and local media said.
Pakistani police claimed that the critically injured suspected militant, Habibur Rehman, worked for Al Qaeda. Rehman was being treated at a local hospital, police said.
The incident occurred in the remote Pir Mahal town, located some 300 kilometers off the provincial capital of Lahore, local Geo television reported.
The suspect’s third child, an infant, remained unhurt in the incident, the local media said, adding that a policeman was also injured in the incident.
The media quoted security officials as claiming that the injured suspect was an alleged mastermind of an attack on Pakistani army’s headquarters in Rawalpindi in 2009.
Human rights organizations have often accused security forces in Pakistan of killing suspects in staged gun battles to avoid producing them in a court of law and proving the charges against them with concrete evidence.