Karachi: Police on Wednesday said they killed at least eight militants of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban group, including a top leader and a teenaged potential suicide bomber.

Authorities seized bombs and other weapons in the encounter.

Police said the militants were plotting to carry out a big attack in Karachi but the timely intelligence helped them busting the den.

Rao Anwar, a senior police officer in Malir district, told journalists police had saved the city from devastation by killing the militants in the armed encounter, which took place near the Malir-Bakra Piri Road, in the eastern part of Karachi.

The militants had opened fire on the raiding police party, officials said. In the retaliatory fire, eight militants were killed, including Ameer Gul, who was the top leader of the Taliban in Tank distract.

Anwar said the raid was carried on information that Gul was hiding at that place and he was plotting a big attack somewhere in Karachi.

During the encounter a potential suicide bomber whose age seemed to be around 16, was also killed.

The police officer said the bomber had been sent to Karachi from the northern areas by Jamatul Ahrar, another banned faction of Taliban, to execute the bombing.

Another slain militant was identified as Lalo, but the identities of the rest of the group were yet to be confirmed, he said.

During the raid, police also found a laptop bomb. The device had a massive amount of explosives, which could have wrecked havoc had it been detonated, officials said.

Police said the militants had come from Afghanistan and the Wadh sub-district of Balochistan province.

Pakistani law enforcement agencies have intensified their operations against militants after the deadly bombing on the shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalander last week in which 90 people including children and women, were killed and more than 350 injured.

Soon after the shrine attack, security forces shot over 100 alleged militants across the country and the air force bombed the bordering areas of Afghanistan, notorious as a haven for insurgents.

Elsewhere, law enforcement agencies rounded up over a dozen suspected militants in Jehlum, Faisalabad and Rahim Yar Khan.

Among the arrested people were seven foreigners.

The district administration has also banned pillion riding in the Tank district, a gateway to the country’s tribal agencies that are the hotbed of militants.