LAHORE, Pakistan — At least nine police officers were killed early on Thursday when unidentified gunmen stormed a compound in the eastern city of Lahore in an attack that revived concerns about a fresh wave of terrorist strikes, officials said.
[h=6]Rahat Dar/European Pressphoto Agency[/h]A body was moved after gunmen attacked a police compound in Lahore on Thursday.
A Taliban spokesman claimed the responsibility for the attack and said it was in retribution for the torture inflicted on Taliban inmates in prisons in the country’s restive, insurgency-riven northwestern regions.
Most of the police officers were from northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province and were brought to Lahore, the capital of Punjab Province, for training to become prison guards and wardens, police officials said.
“We will continue attacking jail police if they do not stop mistreatment and insult of our mujahedeen,” said Ehsanullah Ehsan, a Taliban spokesman. “We have the ability to hit our targets wherever we want.”
The attack comes after a similar incident on Monday, when seven army soldiers and a police officer were killed after unidentified gunmen opened fire at a riverside military camp. Taliban militants later claimed the responsibility for the attack.
Police officials said both attacks could be the handiwork of a single terrorist group.
Although the Taliban and other Islamist fighters regularly attack military and government installations in the northwestern regions bordering Afghanistan, violence is relatively rare in Punjab, the country’s most populous and prosperous province.
Police officials said that 32 police trainees were lodged in a rented house in Ichra, a densely populated commercial and residential middle-class neighborhood of Lahore.
The house had no security. The trainees lived in cramped rooms and many slept on the rooftop to escape the summer heat.
According to witnesses, the assault began around 5:30 a.m. when at least 10 gunmen attacked, some standing guard while others fired at officers, some of whom were still asleep.
The training academy is around half a mile from the house that was attacked. The police officers walked to the academy each day to start their training at 7 a.m.
Muhammad Ameer, a police officer attending the academy who was slightly wounded, said he was sleeping on the roof when he heard gunfire. In the ensuing panic, several of his colleagues escaped by jumping over walls surrounding the house, he said. “It was just like a war. Bullets were fired in all directions.”
“The firing continued for 15 minutes,” said Muhammad Imran, a witness who lives nearby.
The gunmen escaped after the attack.
President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf both condemned the attacks.
“Such incidents would rather strengthen the resolve of government and people to fight out the menace of terrorism and extremism,” Mr. Ashraf said in a statement.
Waqar Gillani reported from Lahore, Pakistan, and Salman Masood from Islamabad. Ihsanullah Tipu Mehsud contributed reporting from Islamabad.
[h=6]Rahat Dar/European Pressphoto Agency[/h]A body was moved after gunmen attacked a police compound in Lahore on Thursday.
A Taliban spokesman claimed the responsibility for the attack and said it was in retribution for the torture inflicted on Taliban inmates in prisons in the country’s restive, insurgency-riven northwestern regions.
Most of the police officers were from northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province and were brought to Lahore, the capital of Punjab Province, for training to become prison guards and wardens, police officials said.
“We will continue attacking jail police if they do not stop mistreatment and insult of our mujahedeen,” said Ehsanullah Ehsan, a Taliban spokesman. “We have the ability to hit our targets wherever we want.”
The attack comes after a similar incident on Monday, when seven army soldiers and a police officer were killed after unidentified gunmen opened fire at a riverside military camp. Taliban militants later claimed the responsibility for the attack.
Police officials said both attacks could be the handiwork of a single terrorist group.
Although the Taliban and other Islamist fighters regularly attack military and government installations in the northwestern regions bordering Afghanistan, violence is relatively rare in Punjab, the country’s most populous and prosperous province.
Police officials said that 32 police trainees were lodged in a rented house in Ichra, a densely populated commercial and residential middle-class neighborhood of Lahore.
The house had no security. The trainees lived in cramped rooms and many slept on the rooftop to escape the summer heat.
According to witnesses, the assault began around 5:30 a.m. when at least 10 gunmen attacked, some standing guard while others fired at officers, some of whom were still asleep.
The training academy is around half a mile from the house that was attacked. The police officers walked to the academy each day to start their training at 7 a.m.
Muhammad Ameer, a police officer attending the academy who was slightly wounded, said he was sleeping on the roof when he heard gunfire. In the ensuing panic, several of his colleagues escaped by jumping over walls surrounding the house, he said. “It was just like a war. Bullets were fired in all directions.”
“The firing continued for 15 minutes,” said Muhammad Imran, a witness who lives nearby.
The gunmen escaped after the attack.
President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf both condemned the attacks.
“Such incidents would rather strengthen the resolve of government and people to fight out the menace of terrorism and extremism,” Mr. Ashraf said in a statement.
Waqar Gillani reported from Lahore, Pakistan, and Salman Masood from Islamabad. Ihsanullah Tipu Mehsud contributed reporting from Islamabad.