Police interrogate suspects after Lahore attacks
By Zulqarnain Tahir, Ahmed Fraz and Zaheer Mahmood with AFP updates
LAHORE: Pakistan interrogated suspects and stepped up security Friday in a bid to prevent further bloodshed after terrorists targeted three symbols of law enforcement here on Thursday in an orchestrated attack that rudely shook the city and raised questions about the efficacy of governments watch and guard machinery.
Seventeen people 12 policemen and five civilians lost their lives. Ten attackers were killed.
'There has been considerable progress in the ongoing investigation. We have arrested dozens of suspects during overnight raids in Lahore,' Haider Ashraf, senior police official at the Manawan police academy, told AFP.
'These people are being interrogated. We are also trying to identify the terrorists who were killed yesterday,' he added.
'The chief minister has constituted a high-powered committee of technical experts and officials from the elite police force to recommend measures to further beef up security,' said Punjab provincial law minister Rana Sanaullah.
Sanaullah blamed militants in South Waziristan in Pakistan's tribal belt where the Taliban and Al-Qaeda are believed to have carved out safe havens after US-led troops invaded Afghanistan in 2001.
'These attacks have links with militants in South Waziristan. Investigations are focusing on when these people came to Lahore, where they stayed and who their contacts were in the city,' Sanaullah told AFP.'I never saw such trained people. I saw them talking on a mobile phone. One militant spoke to someone while firing at recruits. One of the terrorists hit by a bullet blew himself up,' Wasin Abbas told AFP from hospital.
The three attacks were carried out in quick succession in the morning. Manawan Police Training School was attacked at 9.10am, FIAs provincial headquarters at 9.25am and Elite Police Headquarters at 9.30am.
The 10 terrorists, reported to be in their late teens, blasted their way into the buildings and tried to take them over.
There were rumours that three women were among the terrorists who attacked the Elite Police Headquarters, but no evidence was found and officials dismissed the reports as baseless.
It was the second time that two of the targets the FIA building and Manawan Training School came under attack, despite prior warnings by intelligence agencies to the authorities.
The FIA building was attacked on March 11 last year and Manawan Training School on March 30 this year. Thirty-six people had lost their lives in the two attacks.
In the end, all the 10 terrorists were dead either killed by law enforcers or blowing themselves up after having been cornered but they kept the city on tenterhooks for more than three hours. The entire security paraphernalia was mobilised and police, elite force, Rangers and the army were all roped in as the scale and magnitude of the attack became evident.
The terror unfolded at Manawan Training School, which boasts hundreds of personnel at any given time, when a Suzuki van dropped off four terrorists near the school at 9.10am. Two of the attackers advanced towards the main gate, shot dead the security guard in the bunker before entering the premises by scaling the main gate.
Their two accomplices followed them, using grenades to blast their way through. One terrorist went to the kitchen, one set off for the in-house barbers salon and a third one approached a barrack reserved for sick personnel.
Soon afterwards, they exploded their suicide belts. The fourth was spotted in the lawn and was gunned down by security personnel.
Nine policemen lost their lives in the battle with terrorists at the Manawan centre and 50 others suffered injuries. Rescue 1122 and Edhi ambulances transported the bodies and the injured to hospital.
Shahab Ali, a 24-year-old police recruit at Manawan said Thursday's assault had been far worse.
'I saw one terrorist with a thin beard giving directions to another three men, saying 'our mission is to kill all of them. They are infidels'.'
Law enforcement personnel launched a search operation at the training school and cleared it at 11.50am.
It was business as usual for 50-odd staffers at the FIAs provincial headquarters on Temple Road when a lone terrorist entered the gateless compound at 9.25am and opened fire and threw grenades.
Two FIA inspectors and four citizens who were present close to the gate died on the spot.
Three Rangers personnel, who were engaged by the FIA for security of its officials after the March bombing, took positions outside the main building and killed the assailant a few yards away from the building.
The man was wearing a suicide jacket and could have caused heavy damage at a time when a large number of FIA officials were just warming up for days work.
I was chatting with two colleagues in the old building when a terrorist wearing a suicide jacket stormed in and gunned down four visitors sitting in the waiting lounge. My two colleagues also came under the firing, but I was lucky, FIA official Javed Shafiq told Dawn.
He said that Rangers personnel had gunned down the terrorist when he was about to blow himself up.
The terrorist was carrying packets of dates and dry fruit. This indicated that he had come in for a long haul and planned to take people hostage, a senior official said.
The attacker was carrying an AK-47, seven magazines and four grenades.
Police commandos later evacuated the office and nearby buildings and launched a search operation.
Just as the authorities squared up to the militants in Manawan and on Temple Road, the Elite Police Headquarters on Bedian Road came under attack at 9.30am.
Five terrorists entered the premises by scaling the rear boundary wall, fired indiscriminately and threw grenades. Two of them had suicide jackets on. Their advance was checked by Elite policemen on duty, and one of them exploded the jacket when fired at.
Another three terrorists scaled the walls of an adjoining section where some security men and their families have residences. The terrorists climbed onto rooftops of the houses, where they set themselves up. Initially it was feared that they might be holding the families of some policemen hostage, forcing security personnel to make their advance carefully.
The terrorists engaged security forces for two-and-a-half hours before they reportedly ran out of ammunition. During the tense 150-minute clash, one ASI and a civilian were killed.
When security forces closed in on the terrorists, three of them collectively blew themselves up at about 11.45am.
The blast was heard and felt far and wide. The fifth attacker, who had explosives strapped around his waist, tried to escape through the rear gate and was killed by security forces.
The intensity of the attack brought Interior Minister Rehman Malik to Lahore later in the day. He praised security personnel for their successful operation.
He put down the elimination of all 10 terrorists to the commitment and efficiency of security forces.
He vowed to take on terrorists with renewed vigour and appealed to people to inform security forces about any suspicious activity.
Most people now have cell phones. They must use them whenever they see something dubious going around. This is how we can jointly fight the menace of terrorism. This is a national fight. We cannot afford to relax, he added. Mr Malik promised land and employment for the heirs of all those killed in Thursdays attacks.
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