Police kill six militants in central Pakistan

Police has killed six al-Qaeda militants in an armed clash in Pakistan's central Muzaffargarh district on Friday, local media reported.

The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of Police said the militants fled the scene after a police operation in Multan city on Thursday night, which left eight militants dead.

The CTD personnel chased the on-the-run militants and tracked them down in Mondka Chowk area of Muzaffargarh, some 42 km away from Multan in Pakistan's east Punjab province.

Police said that a joint team of Inter-services Intelligence Agency and the CTD set up a checkpoint on the road leading to eastern Punjab and Balochistan provinces, to hunt down the militants.

A police team signaled a suspected car and a motorcycle to stop at the checkpoint, but the riders tried to flee by opening fire at the security teams.

The police chased the car, which had an improvised explosive device (IED) fixed to it, and blew it up by hitting the IED with a bullet.

The CTD said one of the six militants was wanted by the police and had a head money of 1 million rupees (10,000 U.S. dollars).

The militants were planning to attack a university in the Multan city, but the police foiled their plan by launching operation against them on an intelligence tip-off. Endit