Al-Qaida suspects in gun battle

PARAMILITARY troops yesterday fought a four-hour gun battle with suspected terrorists holed up in a house in southern Pakistan. Two men were arrested and another was killed, officials said.

An intelligence official said authorities had information that al-Qaida suspects had been hiding inside the house in Nawabshah, a town about 200 kilometres north-east of the main southern city of Karachi, but their identities and nationalities were not immediately clear.

Two men who had tried to flee were arrested. They were led away in blindfolds by intelligence officials, said local police official Ismail Jamali. One of the men was injured in the gun battle, he said.