LAHORE: Pakistan police said on Wednesday said that three militants suspected of involvement in suicide attacks on two churches had been killed during a failed escape attempt.

Police had taken the suspects to a village in the suburbs of the Punjab provincial capital Lahore to retrieve suicide vests and weapons, and came under attack as they returned.

“The attackers opened fire on police to try to release the terrorists. Police returned fire and three militants were killed during the exchange of fire,” Haider Ashraf, a senior police official in Lahore, told AFP.

The trio was arrested along with two others on August 4 over the twin Taliban suicide attacks on two churches in Lahore’s Youhanabad district in March that killed 17 people and wounded more than 70. Police said two officers were wounded in the clash with the attackers, who fled. Punjab police spokeswoman Nabeela Ghazanfar confirmed details of the incident.