Terrorists Attack Police Academy in Lahore Pakistan

Unidentified gunmen armed with assault rifles and grenades made a violent attack on a police training school in eastern Pakistan city of Lahore on Monday, leaving the city overshadowed with terrorism threats.

The intense fighting between Pakistan military and police and the gunmen started from 7:30 a.m. local time in the second largest city in Pakistan and lasted about eight hours.

Advisor on Prime Minister’s Interior Rehman Malik confirmed that four terrorists have been killed and the others have been arrested, but he did not give exact figure of the gunmen as well as the figure of casualties in the attack.

There is still conflicting reports on the casualties. Earlier reports said at least 25 people were killed and 90 others injured when the masked gunmen attacked the police.

A group of armed men huddled next to a minaret on a mosque rooftop leapt to their feet and shouted “Allahu Akbar”. For once it was Pakistani security forces celebrating rather than militants. Across a main road in the water-buffalo market town of Manawan, outside Lahore, police commandos fired triumphal “aerial” rounds. They had recaptured a police-training centre which militants had stormed eight hours earlier on Monday March 30th.

Lax security at the ramshackle academy allowed a dozen militants to rampage among 800 or more mostly unarmed police recruits. “The operation is over,” said the interior minister, Rehman Malik. He said that if security forces had not been on high alert, the toll would have been higher. “The attack was to dishearten, to demoralise the civilian security services,” said a local administrator. Terrorist attacks in Pakistan have become such frequent occurrences that people have grown used to asking when and where the next assault would come.

Cadets said that the militants burst onto the parade ground at 7.30am through the main gate and from the rear, spraying rounds from Kalashnikovs and hurling grenades. The terrorists’ faces were obscured by black cloth. Several were reported to have donned police uniforms. Policemen jumped from second-floor windows and stampeded over walls to escape. An armoured personnel carrier advanced then beat a retreat. A lull in the firefight ensued.

Just before 4pm commandos fought back, launching an assault amid intense gunfire. Spectators watching from the bazaar scuttled for cover during several minutes of crackle and blasts. It was a rare success and a joint operation by the army, paramilitary rangers and Punjab’s “elite” police squad. Even the smart, cravat-wearing highway police played a role.

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Gunmen Made Stand in Pakistan Barracks’ Top Floor

Blood-soaked bedding was strewn with blackened body parts in a police barracks in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Monday after the last of the gunmen who stormed the building blew themselves up.

The attackers, armed with grenades and rifles, launched an assault on the police training center during a morning drill session, shooting down recruits on their dusty parade ground.

They held off police and soldiers for about eight hours before the last three gunmen made a stand on the top floor of the three-storey building. They blew themselves up as security forces launched a final assault, police said.

At least eight recruits were killed and 89 wounded. Four gunmen were killed and three were captured, the government said. Rehman Malik, the Interior Ministry head, said the Pakistani Taliban were suspected of carrying out the attack.

“I can’t tell you what I saw and what kind of terror I went through,” 19-year-old recruit Zahid Usman told his mother by mobile phone shortly after the violence ended.

“They were not human beings. They were not Muslims, they were evil,” a sobbing Usman said.

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Fighters Loyal to Pakistani Taliban Leader Baitullah Mehsud Suspected

Fighters loyal to Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud were suspected of carrying out an attack on a police academy in Lahore on Monday, Interior Ministry head Rehman Malik said.

The militants killed eight cadets before being overwhelmed by a commando assault. Four militants died during the assault, while three suspects have been captured, officials said.

Malik told a news conference that one of the suspects was an Afghan.

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