ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Sept. 8 (UPI) -- Four Islamic militants, including two accused of Bahawalpur church attack and the killing of former federal minister Siddiq Khan Kanju, were killed in a shootout with Pakistan police on Sunday in Pakistan's southern city Multan.
Authorities said a police party came under attack as it was escorting Mohammad Waseem and Mohammad Akram, who are accusing of participating the killing of 17 people in a church last Oct. 17, to Kehror Pakka in an attempt to recover weapons allegedly hidden near the city of Multan.
Police said the attack was an attempt to free the captives and gave chase, later finding and killing four people, including Waseem and Akram. Police sources said that those killed belonged to the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and had been armed with heavy weapons.
Last October Christian worshipers and a Muslim police officer were gunned down in an attack by six men on a Catholic church in Bahawalpur, in southern Punjab province, the first major attack against the Christian community in Pakistan. The victims included four women and five children. Police initially blamed three extremist Sunni groups -- Sipah-i-Sahaba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Harakat ul Mujahideen -- and arrested dozens of members of the groups.
However, police, in light of eyewitnesses accounts, had arrested Waseem and Akram, who confessed to killing several people including Kanju. Police said Waseem had also been involved in an attack last month on a missionary hospital in Taxila in which four nurses and an attacker were killed.
