PAKISTAN UNDER TERROR, MANY DIED IN BOMB ATTACKS….
Lahore/Islamabad, Oct 15 (IANS) Pakistan Thursday vowed revenge after the Taliban laid siege to Lahore city with audacious and simultaneous attacks on three police establishments that killed 25 people, including 10 of the attackers. Suicide bombers claimed 11 more lives elsewhere in the country.
An unknown number of armed men - and probably a few women - dressed in military fatigues stormed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) building in a thickly populated area of Lahore, stunning the authorities.
Around the same time, two other groups of terrorists raided the sprawling police training school at Manawan, about 12 km from the Indian border, and the Elite Force training centre, another huge complex.
In 12 days of wanton violence, the terrorists have carried out numerous suicide bombing, blasts and attacks, including the storming of Army Headquarters in Rawalpindi and three synchronised attacks on law enforcement establishments in Lahore yesterday leaving a trail of 174 deaths.
With terror toll mounting, Pakistan law enforcement agencies began swoops countrywide in which over 80 people suspected to be involved in the recent spate of deadly strikes, including in the synchronised suicide attacks in Lahore which left 29 people dead have been arrested.
The security agencies have warned of more such strikes in coming days and said they were aimed at scuttling Army's impending major assault on their stronghold of South Waziristan.
Thursday was one of the worst days for Pakistani authorities -- even by the country's own standard of unending bloodletting. In no time, the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, which Saturday attacked the military headquarters in Rawalpindi, claimed responsibility for the Lahore mayhem.
The group has vowed to hurt Pakistan to protest US drone attacks on militants near the Afghanistan border and to punish security forces for preparing to crack down on the Pakistani Taliban in South Waziritstan.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, now in China, reacted angrily.
He said that when the terrorists had taken on the Pakistani military and police and openly claimed responsibility, then 'certainly we will react at a time when (we have) some strategy'.
NWFP Senior Minister Bashir Bilour said 13 people were killed. Three policemen, two women and a child were among the dead, officials said. Three security personnel were among the injured, they added.
"It was a suicide attack. The leg of the bomber has been found," NWFP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussian told reporters at the site of the attack. Seven of the injured are in a serious condition, he said.
"The CIA office and police were the targets of the bomber but many civilians were killed and injured," Hussain said.
About 60 to 70 kg of explosives were used in the attack, said Additional Inspector General of Police Shafqat Malik of the bomb disposal squad. TV news channels beamed footage of the police station, one of its wall blown out by the explosion.
Hussian said militants had stepped up attacks in view of the government's plans to launch operations in the Taliban's stronghold of South Waziristan. "But just as we didn't accept pressure from the militants when we were conducting operations in Malakand division, we won't accept pressure now. We will take firm steps to end terrorism," he said.
This was the second attack on the police training school this year after a March 30 assault that left several people dead.
Pakistan has been rocked by a string of terror attacks in the last 10 days that have claimed more than 100 lives.
The Lahore attacks come a day after it was announced that Pakistani Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani had ordered that an advisory on tightening security be issued following the assault on the military headquarters.
The security forces continued their pounding of Waziristan using fighter jets and artillery guns to soften the Taliban defences in the area. However, Army has refused to give the timing of the offensive.
An emergency was declared in all hospitals in Peshawar, where authorities have been on high alert for the past few weeks in the wake of a wave of deadly attacks.
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