The attacks were the latest in a series of devastating terrorist strikes across Pakistan meant to dissuade security forces from pushing forward with a military offensive in South Waziristan.
At least 41 people were killed and more than 100 injured in Lahore on Thursday when Taliban terrorists wearing police and army uniforms stormed the headquarters of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and two police training centres in synchronised fidayeen attacks.
The attacks were the latest in a series of devastating terrorist strikes across Pakistan meant to dissuade security forces from pushing forward with a military offensive in South Waziristan, the primary stronghold of the Tehrik-i-Taliban; the Punjab faction of the terror group claimed responsibility for Thursday’s events.
Lahore’s commissioner Khusro Pervaiz linked Indian intelligence agencies with the attacks, saying “foreign-sponsored saboteurs” would not be allowed to go scot-free and carry on with their “ulterior motives”.
The attacks began at around 9.15am, four days after the bloody terrorist assault on the general headquarters of the Pakistani army in Rawalpindi. The first attack was on the FIA offices where seven people were killed. The dead included at least one militant and four FIA officials, said Lahore police commissioner Pervez Khusro, who added that security forces regained control of the building by late morning.
The second attack was on the Manawan police academy (where a similar attack had been carried out in March). The attackers wore jogging shoes and were armed with explosives-filled suicide jackets and automatic rifles. They — like the Rawalpindi attackers — wanted to take hostage a few senior police officers, but failed.
The police secured the academy by early afternoon, but not before six security officers had been killed and seven injured. Also killed were four militants, at least two of whom had detonated their suicide jackets after being surrounded by security personnel.
The third attack occurred at the elite police training centre in Bedian, where 10 militants scaled the boundary wall to get inside. A gun battle ensued for five hours between police commandos and the highly-armed militants, with helicopters hovering, at the end of which five militants were killed. The rest fled.
Shortly before the Lahore attacks, a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into the main gate of a police station in the district of Kohat in the troubled North West Frontier Province, killing 12 people.
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