Local Urdu TV channel ARY quoted unidentified sources as saying that five security personnel were also killed in the operation. However, the report has not been officially confirmed.
The search operation was kicked off Saturday afternoon in the hilly Pir Chambal area of Pind Dadan Khan, a town in Punjab province's Jhelum District, which is some 100 kilometers southeast of the country's capital Islamabad.
The five militants killed belonged to Tehreek-e-Taliban ( Pakistan Taliban), said Samaa TV report, adding that they had been active in involving kidnapping people in the neighboring areas for ransom for months.
They used to releasing the hostages after the ransom was paid, said local media reports. However, on Saturday, they killed three people kidnapped from a cement factory two days ago and threw their bodies in the town. One of the kidnapped people was a security-in-charge of the factory.
Upon the tip-off from intelligence agency, the police launched a search operation in the Pir Chambal area where they hid. After nearly one hour of exchange of fire, police killed all the five militants. And the dead bodies of the militants were later airlifted by army helicopter to Rawalpindi, an adjacent city of Islamabad.
Police sources said that the five militants had been involved in more than 20 kidnapping cases in the area. Local watchers believed that they could have done the kidnapping for funding their group.
Editor: Deng Shasha
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