Karachi, 28 June

Pakistani security forces killed six terrorists and captured one alive after a militant assault on a Sindh Rangers compound in Karachi on Saturday night, leaving four of the paramilitary personnel dead in the city's first major terrorist strike since October 2024.

Attackers belonging to Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a banned faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), stormed the Sindh Rangers' Bhittai Wing headquarters in the densely populated Gulistan-e-Jauhar area around 8.30 pm, ramming a vehicle through the main gate before hurling hand grenades and triggering multiple explosions.

The 90-minute gun battle ended after Special Security Unit commandos and the Anti-Terrorist Force joined Rangers personnel in neutralising six militants. One injured attacker was captured alive.

Authorities sealed off the compound and surrounding roads as the operation unfolded. Nearby residents were told to stay indoors, and some neighbourhoods experienced power outages.

The assault is the first terrorist attack in Karachi since October 2024, when two Chinese engineers were killed in a suicide bombing near Karachi airport claimed by the banned Balochistan Liberation Army.

The last major TTP attack in Karachi occurred in February 2023, when militants stormed the Karachi Police Office on Shahrah-e-Faisal.

The attack comes amid heightened Pakistan-Afghanistan tensions, with Islamabad repeatedly accusing Kabul of providing sanctuary to TTP militants, and striking Afghan territory.