MULTAN, Pakistan - Six suspected Islamic militants were killed Sunday in a fierce gunbattle with police, and four of the dead were suspects in a fatal attack on a Roman Catholic church last year, officials said.
According to police chief in the city of Behawalpur in Punjab province, Sikandar Hayyat, police were traveling with four members of the outlawed extremist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi outside the city when they were fired on from a car.
The attackers freed all four militants and wounded nine officers, but police pursued them and caught them near the town of Kherpur Tamewala, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of Multan.
Six people were killed, including all four of the men who had been with the police. Two of the attackers escaped, said Hayyat.
The four who had been in police custody were all suspects in last October's attack on St. Dominic's Church in Behawalpur during a Protestant service, in which 14 worshippers, their minister and a Muslim security guard were killed.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf had banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi two months earlier as part of an effort to purge the country of extremism and terrorism.
Although Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has traditionally targeted Shiite Muslims, police believe they may now be working with groups connected to al-Qaida to target Westerners and the Pakistani government. The groups seek revenge for the collapse of the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan and Musharraf's crackdown on militant Islamic groups.
Police have detained dozens of suspected militants, many of them Lashkar-e-Jhangvi members, in connection with a June 14 car bombing outside the U.S. Consulate in Karachi that killed 12 people, and a May 8 suicide bombing outside the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi, which killed 11 French engineers and three other people, including the bomber.