[Dawn] Three suspected militants blew themselves up after police and villagers gave a chase and surrounded them in a mountainous area here on Saturday."M. le Inspecteur! What made you suspect they are militants?"
"Cherchez le detonation, Legume!"
According to officials, police launched a search in a suburb of the Azad Kashmir capital after residents reported that three men had dumped a bag of weapons behind a house.
"You, there! You with the turban! What's in that bag?"
"Weapons!"
"Well, don't leave 'em behind my house!"
Police and civil defence department officials found three Kalashnikovs along with 18 magazines, 12 grenades, six guided missiles, one pistol with two magazines and two jackets in the bag.
"Look at this, chief!"
"Quite a haul, McGinty! We don't usually get guided missiles in those weapons bags!"
The suspects, in the meantime, had crossed over to the other side of the town using a suspension bridge on River Jhelum. 'We started chasing them and two more police parties joined us,' a police official told Dawn.
"Here, youse! Halt!"
Police in neighbouring Mansehra and Abbottabad districts had also been alerted, he added.
"Calling all cars! Calling all cars! Be on the lookout for two men armed with guided missiles! That isw all!"
Finally, police and local people surrounded the three suspects on the Sarar hill and when they got close the militants blew themselves up. Their bodies blew apart and police found two heads and a torso. Head of the third militant was badly mutilated.
"Over here, chief! I think I've found it!"
"Are you sure? It doesn't look much like a head!"
"I think that's a nose. Or used to be."
"Yeah. I guess that could be a nostril."
Police collected the body parts scattered all around the place and sent them to the Combined Military Hospital for a post-mortem.
"Delivery for Doctor Quincy!"
"Whaddya got?... E-w-w-w! Tell me that's not a nostril!"
"Ummm... You guys tell us."
Muzaffarabad DIG Shaikh Tahir Qayyum told Dawn that a computerised national identity card and Rs2,000 were found in one of the militants' jacket. According to the CNIC, his name was Rahimullah, son of Sharifullah. He was a resident of Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Karachi, the DIG added. However, he said that genuineness of the CNIC would be verified.
"I don't think they print them in crayon anymore..."
On June 26 this year, two soldiers were killed and three others injured in the first-ever incident of suicide bombing in Muzaffarabad. Security has been beefed up in the city and additional police forces have been deployed at all government installations. Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider condemned the incident and said that all steps would be taken to maintain peace in the region.