Pakistani police say 10 militants, including a key facilitator of deadly blast in February, have been killed in a gunbattle in the eastern city of Lahore.
Police officers probing a previous militant assault came under attack early on April 8 on the Lahore outskirts, the regional Counterterrorism Department said in a statement.
Police called for reinforcements and encircled the area, challenging the militants to surrender, the statement said.
"A gunbattle ensued. When firing stopped 10 militants were found dead by the firing of their fleeing accomplices," the statement said, identifying the militants as members of Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban.
Jamaat-ur-Ahrar claimed responsibility for a suicide attack in Lahore that left 13 dead in February, as well as an Easter Day bombing in Lahore last year that killed more than 70 people in a public park.
The police statement said a facilitator of the February bombing was among those killed in the April 8 gunbattle.
Authorities say Pakistani security forces killed around 100 militants in February after a Sufi shrine bombing that left more than 80 dead in the southern province of Sindh that month.
