KARACHI: Police claimed to have killed three suspected militants in an `encounter` in an area on the outskirts of the city on Thursday evening.

According to Malir SSP Rao Anwar, acting on a tipoff police raided an alleged hideout of the militants in Fagira Goth off the Superhighway. When police personnel were moving closer to the hideout, the militants opened fire on them. The police personnel returned fire, leaving three militants dead, he added.

According to police, the militants belonged to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and they were allegedly involved in killings of policemen and Rangers personnel in Karachi and attacks on security forces in Waziristan.

They were also involved in cases of kidnapping for ransom and extortion.

The SSP identified two of the deceased as Saeed Badshah alias Munshi `Commander` and Badar alias China. The identity of the third one could not be ascertaine d imme diately.

Bodies were shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for a post-mortem examination.