Security forces kill 13 militants in Karachi

At least 13 militants affiliated to Al Qaeda and Pakistani Taliban were killed in a heavy exchange of fire with security forces in the country's financial capital on Monday. The terrorists, in police and rangers' uniforms, were killled in the notorious Al-Asif square of Karachi, said senior superintendent police of Malir district, Rao Anwar.

He said a terrorist was also captured alive with a huge cache of arms and explosives. "These terrorists, six of them with affiliation to the Al Qaeda and seven to the TTP, were killed after a heavy gunfire with the police commandos," Anwar said.

"The exchange of fire occurred after we raided a house in Al-Asif square on an intelligence tip off that some terrorists were in hiding there," he added.

Anwar said the heavily-armed terrorists also lobbed hand grenades at the police. The law enforcement and security agencies have stepped up operations in areas of Karachi, known to harbour militants from upcountry, following a bloody massacre of children by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militants at ArmyPublic School in Peshawar on December 16.

A group of at least six militants killed 148 people, most of them children, at the school in an attack claimed by the TTP as a revenge for Pakistan army's ongoing military operation in the north.

Pakistan army has launched the major offensive against militants after an assault on Karachi airport in June in which 37 people were killed, including the attackers.

In another incident in the Safora Goth area, criminal investigation department police arrested three militants of the TTP Swat group and recovered suicide jackets and explosives from them.