KARACHI: Three suicide bombers linked to an outlawed militant outfit blew themselves up as security forces tried to flush them out from a house in the shanty Baldia town on the outskirts of Karachi.
The police also recovered the body of a transporter, Shaukat Afridi who was kidnapped on May 8 from the posh locality of Clifton and was being held for ransom.
Afridis company supplied fuel to the Nato forces in Afghanistan, police said.
The militants and Shaukats family members were negotiating for his release at a price of USD 5 million
The police raided the house in this commercial hub of Pakistan, following a tip off provided by a leader of an Al-Qaeda linked militant outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi during interrogation.
"We raided his house on a tip off and found three militants holed up there with Afridi. Two of them blew themselves up when we started closing in on them after a hour long encounter," he said.
The third militant was apparently buried in the debris resulting from the blast.
Police claim the terrorists were wanted for involvement in the Nishtar Park bombing in April 2006. The attack during a celebration of the Prophets Birthday killed over fifty people, and wiped out the leadership of the Sunnit Tehreek
Bomb disposal squad official Munir Ahmed said that they had recovered atleast nine live grenades, two suicide jackets, explosive material and revolvers from the demolished house in which the militants blew themselves up.
The encounter came just as Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani reached the city on an official visit.
