2 Counter-Terrorism Department Officers Shot Dead In Pakistan

Two officers of the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) were shot dead on Tuesday by unidentified gunmen in Khanewal district in Pakistan's Punjab province, police said.

Two terrorists opened fire at Deputy Director Navid Sadiq and Inspector Nasir Abbas, who stopped at a restaurant for lunch in Khanewal, some 375 kilometres from Lahore, on their way to the office in Multan, a Punjab police statement said.

The two officers were killed on the spot. The terrorists managed to flee on a bike, the statement added.

Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi has ordered the Inspector General of Police to monitor an operation launched to arrest the terrorists.

He also instructed the Punjab police to be on high alert to combat the fresh wave of terrorism.

Terrorism in Pakistan has seen a sharp increase after the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban, announced the end of an indefinite ceasefire with the government in November last year.

The militant group has issued orders to its fighters to carry out attacks across the country.

Last month, the Pakistan Army commandos killed 25 Taliban militants during an operation to free anti-terrorism police officers who were held hostage inside a Khyber Pakhtunkhwa CTD compound in Bannu for three days.

The National Security Committee (NSC) on Monday categorically asked Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers, without directly naming them, to deny safe haven to Pakistani terrorist groups on their soil and end their patronage, while reiterating its intent to crush terrorist groups operating inside the country with full force.

“Pakistan’s security is un-compromisable and the full writ of the state will be maintained on every inch of the country’s territory,” it said.