Over a dozen masked militants firing assault rifles and hurling grenades invaded a police academy here Monday and rampaged through it for hours, seizing hostages and killing at least 22 policemen before being overpowered by Pakistani security forces in armored vehicles and helicopters, authorities said. Six militants were arrested and eight others were killed in the eight-hour battle to retake the facility on the outskirts of this city in eastern Pakistan, said Rao Iftikhar, a top government official in Punjab province. Two of the militants blew themselves up, he said. There were conflicting reports about casualties. No militant group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack which concluded with victorious security personnel shouting “Allah-o-Akbar” and firing gunshots in the air. The highly coordinated attack underscored the threat that militancy poses to the US-allied, nuclear-armed country and prompted Pakistan's top civilian security official to say that militant groups were “destabilizing the country.” The attack around 7:30 A.M. on the Manawan Police Training School came during the parade hour when more than 800 trainees were out, all unarmed. The militants entered the sprawling compound, apparently by scaling the boundary wall, and threw grenades at the parading trainees. Ilyas, a police constable an eyewitness, told reporters: “We were exercising in the training ground inside the compound when we heard a blast. A great cloud of dust blew over us and I felt something hit my face. When I touched my face there was blood all over. Then I saw a man firing a Kalashnikov running towards us. He had a beard and his face was partially covered by a bandanna. Three of my colleagues fell down in the burst of firing. I just turned and ran. Thank God, I managed to get away.” “Some of the attackers are wearing (police) uniforms,” officer Ahsan Younus said. “They have also taken some of our police as hostage.” Strategy to save hostages TV footage showed several frightened police officers jumping over the wall of the academy to flee the attack.Some crouched behind the wall of the compound, their rifles pointed in the direction of the parade ground. Farther back, masses of security forces and civilians monitored the tense standoff, taking shelter behind security and rescue vehicles. Pakistan Army troops and paramilitary, Pakistan Rangers, were called in to back up the police. A group of Special Services Group (SSG) commandos of the Pakistan Army was pressed into service as well. General Officer Commanding of Lahore Maj-Gen. Shafqat, who was in charge of the operation, said they prepared a strategy to save the hostages, before the security forces, backed by armored vehicles and helicopters hovering overhead, stormed the compound about 4 P.M. At times, explosions rocked the scene. The troops arrested a bearded militant, who tried to throw a hand grenade at an army helicopter. He was identified as Gul Khan and an Afghan passport was recovered from his possession. The forces exchanged fire with the militants in televised scenes reminiscent of the militant siege in the Indian city of Mumbai in November and the attack on Sri Lanka's cricketers earlier this month in Lahore. Surrounded by hundreds of security forces, the militants exhausted their ammunition and the surviving attackers surrendered on a rooftop, where they held about 35 hostages, officials said. “The eight hours were like eight centuries,” said Mohammad Salman, 23, one of the hostages. “It was like I died several times. I had made up my mind that it was all over.” Police captured one of the suspected gunmen six hours after the initial assault, dragging the scruffy, bearded man to a field outside the academy and kicking him. ‘Attack on stability' Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik told state-run TV that Pakistan's police are not equipped to fight the wave of terrorism. “It is a planned, organized, terrorist attack. This shows the extent to which the enemies of our country can go,” Malik said. “In our country, at our different borders, arms are coming in, stinger missiles are coming in, rocket launchers are coming in, heavy equipment is coming – it should be stopped,” Malik said. “Obviously, whoever did this attack has attacked our country's stability.” Lahore, a vibrant metropolis considered by many to be Pakistan's cultural capital, seems to be an increasingly alluring target for militants. The cricket attack in early March, when gunmen ambushed the visiting Sri Lankan team in a crowded traffic circle, sparked a battle that left six police officers and a driver dead and wounded several players. Those gunmen escaped unscathed and have not been publicly identified.
