QUETTA: Four suspected Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militants linked to a deadly attack on a police academy in
Pakistan that left over 60 people dead have been killed by security forces during a raid on a compound in the country's troubled southwest.
The militants were killed in an exchange of fire with police in the Hazarganj area of Quetta yesterday.
Senior police officials said that the four are believed to be from the LEJ which is suspected of carrying out the terrorist attack on the police training centre in Quetta on Monday night in which 61 people, including police cadets, and two army men, were killed.
Deputy Inspector General of police of Balochistan Razzaq Cheema said that the anti-terrorism department's officers raided a compound on the outskirts of Quetta on an intelligence tip-off.
"There was a heavy exchange of fire in which four militants were killed and three police officials injured,"
Cheema said.
He, however, declined to comment on whether the killed terrorists belonged to the LEJ and said investigations were going on to verify their identities.
Confusion still surrounds as to who is actually responsible for carrying out the terrorist strike on the
police training centre.
Security officials believe it is the LEJ Al-Alami group which sent the terrorists from Afghanistan to carry out the strike.
The Islamic State and a splinter group of the Tehreek-e- Taliban have also claimed responsibility for the attack.
Security officials while ruling out the involvement of TTP are looking into the IS claim and believe it
could have been a joint operation by the LEJ Al-Alami and the ISIS.
Pakistan has been battling a homegrown Islamist insurgency since shortly after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.