Pakistan rocked by fresh attacks

Thursday, October 15, 2009

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Page last updated at 14:28 GMT, Thursday, 15 October 2009 15:28 UK
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Printable version

by Sunita Kureishi for the BBC's Biodun Iginla


Aftermath of the Kohat police station attack
A series of attacks on security forces in Pakistan has killed at least 38 people, officials say.
In Lahore, militants attacked offices of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), as well as two police training centres. At least 26 people died.
In the northern town of Kohat, 11 were killed in a car bomb attack on police.
Then a bomb in the city of Peshawar in the north-west killed a child. Suicide attacks in Pakistan in the past two weeks have killed more than 250 people.
The Peshawar car bomb went off outside a housing complex for government employees. A number of people were wounded.

AT THE SCENE

Orla Guerin, BBC News, Lahore

At a hospital, a constable injured in the attack at Manawan police academy told us he was on a break when the gunfire started.
He didn't know he had been hit until he took cover behind a wall.
Despite his injured arm, he says he'll continue to serve his country. He wouldn't say if the government should pursue the Taliban.
Local people have told us everyone is scared in Lahore.
One elderly man said people were keeping away from police and security officials in case of attack.
These strikes seem to say to security forces "the more you come after us, the more we'll go after you".
Thursday's violence began in Lahore - Pakistan's second-largest city. It was long spared the brunt of Pakistan's unrest but has seen a number of attacks since the start of the year.
Four gunmen attacked the FIA building in the city, officials say.
At least seven people - including police and the attackers - were killed in the battle, officials said.
A police spokesman said: "We found grenades and a suicide jacket near one dead person. Two dead bodies have been found near the front gate. The building has been cleared and the employees are safe."
In March 2008, more than 20 people died in a suicide attack on an FIA building nearby.
Police and militants were also among the dead in Thursday's assaults on the other security facilities in Lahore.
One was the Manawan police training academy, where three of the attackers are said to have blown themselves up. Eight others died.
The academy had been targeted in March this year, in an attack that killed nearly 20 people.
'Guerrilla war'
The other training centre attacked on Thursday was the Bedian academy for commando troops.

RECENT MILITANT ATTACKS
15 October - Nearly 40 die in Lahore, Peshawar and Kohat
12 October - Security convoy attacked in Swat valley, 41 die
10 October - Militants attack Rawalpindi army HQ - 20 killed
9 Oct - At least 50 die in Peshawar suicide blast
5 Oct - Five killed in suicide bomb at UN Islamabad offices
26 Sept - 16 die in suicide car bombs in Peshawar and Bannu

Lahore gunmen 'calm and focused'
In pictures: Lahore police attacks
Militant tactics stun Pakistan
Eyewitness: Lahore attacks
Why attack Lahore?
Police say the situation is now under control at all three facilities.
Thursday's attack in Kohat saw a suicide bomber ram his car into the wall of the police station compound, police said, causing part of the building to collapse.
Eyewitnesses say that both civilians and policemen are among the dead.
Interior Minister Rehman MalikRehman Malik said: "The enemy has started a guerrilla war," reports AP news agency.
"The whole nation should be united against these handful of terrorists, and God willing we will defeat them."
The BBC's Aleem Maqbool in Islamabad says that although no group has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks the finger of blame will point towards the Taliban.
Just a couple of weeks ago they threatened a wave of attacks against security forces unless the army's operations against them came to an end.


Separately, a US drone aircraft fired two missiles at a house in the North Waziristan region, killing five Taliban militants, Pakistani officials said.
Nuclear-armed Pakistan is under US pressure to flush out militants as President Barack ObamaBarack Obama considers sending more troops to neighbouring Afghanistan.
Lahore, the centre of Pakistan's cultural life and its most liberal major city, has seen a string of deadly attacks throughout 2009.
In one of the most notable incidents, in March, gunmen attacked the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team, killing six policemen.
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