Two suspected terrorists belonging to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) Mufti Shakir group were killed during an alleged encounter with the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) in Karachi on Tuesday.

According to a CTD press release, an operation was carried out in the Manghopir area to intercept the two 'TTP men' reportedly coming from Balochistan, based on information gathered from the 'terrorists' apprehended by the CTD in last week in Machhar Colony.

Information gathered from the arrested terrorists pointed to the fact that Mufti Shakir had instated one Abdul Jabbar alias Saleem alias Leghari as the ameer (leader) of the TTP splinter group's Karachi wing, the CTD said.

The CTD said that the 'terrorists' in custody claimed that the newly-appointed ameer was also in contact with Afghanistan's intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security, and had been provided trained suicide bombers and suicide jackets by Mufti Shakir.

According to the CTD, the apprehended terrorists also claimed that Abdul Jabbar was on his way to Karachi from Balochistan, with plans to attack jamaat khanas, imambargahs, shrines and police training centres and important officials of security agencies.

According to the CTD, the department assigned a team under Senior Superintendent of Police Intelligence CTD Omer Shahid Hamid to arrest the terrorists.

The team, with the use of the CTD's intelligence, was able to set up checkposts in the city. "As soon as the terrorists' vehicle reached Manghophir, the police signalled them to stop," the CTD said, "after which the terrorists began firing at the police".

"The terrorists, namely Abdul Jabbar and Daniyal were killed on the spot by the police's retaliatory firing," the CTD handout read.

According to CTD forensic scans run on two pistols recovered from the 'terrorists', the weapons were used in the 2015 target killing of a police sub-inspector in Baldia Town.