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Pakistan Reels Under Terror BlitzBy ugeshji, Section Suicide Bombers
Terrorists went on the rampage on Thursday in Lahore and the Northwest Frontier Province, targeting Pakistan's security agencies in an audacious attack that killed at least 40 people.
The strikes come just days after the attempt by terrorists to storm the Pakistan army's General Headquarters in Rawalpindi in which nine attackers and 14 security personnel and civilian employees of the armed forces were killed.  On Thursday, terrorists first struck in Kohat, a garrison city to the southeast of Peshawar. A lone suicide- bomber hit the boundary wall of a police station there with his explosive- laden van, resulting in the death of 13 people, including three policemen. The incident took place at 8 am and the blast, caused by 100 kg of explosives, was so huge that " it turned half of the building of the police station into rubble," said a local journalist, who arrived at the scene within 15 minutes of the explosion. One- and- a- half hours later, Lahore -- the capital of the Punjab province and the second largest city in Pakistan -- came under triple attack by nine terrorists who, firing indiscriminately and lobbing handgrenades, barged into three separate facilities being used by security agencies. One of these was the provincial headquarters of the Federal Investigation Agency ( FIA), the federal police that deals with terrorism. The second was the police training academy at Manawan and the third the Elite Police Training School on Bedian Road on the outskirts of the city. Source: Mail Today Pakistan Reels Under Terror Blitz Click On "Full Story" For More....
Starting at 9.30 am, the terrorists, working in three different groups, killed at least eight security personnel and seven civilians in a matter of just 15 minutes. By 1.30 pm, all nine attackers were killed either in retaliatory firing by the security forces or by activating their suicide vests.
The target of the first terror assault in Lahore was a building housing the local FIA office. "I heard continuous gunshots. Other loud explosions were also taking place at regular intervals," said Muhammad Sharif, who stays near the FIA office. "There was chaos all around. The rescue teams were taking the injured and the dead out," he said. A security official working in Lahore said a lone attacker armed with guns, bullets, hand grenades, a suicide jacket and carrying dry fruits, arrived at the security reception of the FIA at 9.30 am. "Before anyone could do anything, he killed three FIA officials and three civilian visitors present there," the official said. The building where the attack took place had been hit by a massive suicide blast last year and was no longer in use except for the security office that was targeted on Thursday. At the time of the attack, close to 100 officials of the agency were present. "There is only one guard at the entrance that is without a gate. The attacker engaged him in cross-firing and entered the security office where he killed six people," said a junior official of the agency who was present in the security office and was wounded in the attack. The second attack also started around 9.30 am. It took place at the Manawan police training academy, which was also the site of an ambush in March this year. "Three attackers forced their way into the academy through its main gate and killed one guard there," said Khusro Pervez, the commissioner of Lahore. The guards engaged the remaining attackers who were able to enter the area that housed sick police trainees, the commissioner said. But after the police commandos had isolated and cornered them for more than an hour, one of the attackers activated his suicide jacket, resulting in his death as well as of his companion. Three more policemen and four civilians were killed in the explosion. The third target was the Elite Police Training School on Bedian Road on the outskirts of Lahore. " Five attackers scaled the boundary wall of the school in the morning and started moving towards the main training area that consists of offices and classrooms," said Maj Gen Shafqat Ahmed, a military commander in Lahore who headed the operation against the attackers at the school. According to Maj Gen Shafqat, the security forces surrounded the entire premises of the school in large numbers immediately after the attack. Military helicopters hovered overhead. " After a fire- fight lasting for more than two- and- a- half hours, the attackers blew themselves up as they ran out of ammunition," Maj Gen Shafqat said. A police officer and a civilian were killed in the explosions. The last terrorist strike was at 6.30 pm in a residential colony for government officials just outside of Peshawar, the capital of the Northwest Frontier Province. The explosion in Peshawar's Gulshan Colony on the road to Kohat was " a remote controlled blast," said Liaqat Ali, the city police chief. According to him, a terrorist had parked an explosive- laden vehicle right in the middle of the housing complex, which he exploded. One child was killed in the blast and about 10 people were injured. Interior minister Rehman Malik insisted that the recent attacks, including the raid in Rawalpindi last week, were the militants' reaction to " their defeat in Swat." But, a top security official, involved in anti- terrorism operations, said the attacks were aimed at diverting the attention of the military and other security forces from the operations being planned in the South Waziristan tribal agency.
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