Police on Saturday stormed a hideout in the southwestern city of Quetta and killed six terrorists. (File photo of Pakistan Police/News18)
IS-K has its roots deep in several provinces of eastern Afghanistan along the porous border with Pakistan.
- AFP
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A group of suspected Islamic State militants are on the run after escaping a police raid in Pakistan that killed six other members of the group, officials said on Monday.
Counter-terrorism police said in a statement that they raided a hideout in the southwestern city of Quetta on Saturday and killed six terrorists, but “about four to five managed to escape”.
A senior police official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that “teams are now raiding different areas to arrest the escapees.”
Among the dead was Asghar Sumalani, a junior commander of the regional chapter of Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K). He had a bounty of two million rupees ($11,400) on his head.
Pakistani officials have long been downplaying IS-K’s presence in their country.
But the group has claimed responsibility for several attacks last year, including the killing of 11 miners from the minority Shia Hazara community.
Some of the miners were beheaded after being kidnapped from a remote coal mine in the mountainous Makh area, 60 kilometers (37 mi) southeast of Quetta.
IS-K has its roots deep in several provinces of eastern Afghanistan along the porous border with Pakistan.
The group carried out a suicide bombing of Kabul airport in August, killing several people, including 13 US service members, as the Taliban recaptured Afghanistan.
Last week Major General Babar Iftikhar of the Pakistan Army told reporters that “Pakistan is not very active with ISIS”, in response to concerns that the threat from the group was growing.
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