LAHORE: The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) claimed on Sunday to have killed a suspect involved in planning a terrorist attack on former provincial home minister Shuja Khanzada in 2015.

The suspect, identified as Niaz, was a proclaimed offender in more than a dozen murder cases registered against him in different cities of the province. He was the second most wanted person in the province and had Rs6m head money on him.

According to a press release, the suspect and his three other accomplices were going to conduct an attack in Attock when a CTD team, after receiving information, reached there. The CTD personnel asked the suspects to surrender but they opened indiscriminate fire on the team, which led to an exchange of fire between both sides. After the firing stopped, Niaz was found dead while his accomplices fled the scene.

Khanzada and 16 others were killed and 23 people injured in a suicide attack on his political office in Shadi Khan village of district Attock on Aug 16, 2015.

The banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) had claimed the responsibility of the suicide attack on Khanzada, following the killing of their chief Malik Ishaq and his sons in July 2015.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2021