AP Image, Paramilitary troops moving into Police Academy
Media outlets are reporting that a police training academy near Lahore was attacked by gunmen today, killing 8 and wounding many, although BBC News reported there has been “no official confirmation of the casualties.” GEO News reported, “According to sources, unknown attackers threw hand grenades at the Police Training School in Manawan after which exchange of firing began between the armed attackers and the police which still continues.” Dawn noted in its coverage that incident took place between 7 and 8 am Monday morning, [PST] when trainees were participating in their morning parade. The news agency cited eyewitnesses who estimated that “ten attackers carried out the attack, and at least eight explosions have been heard so far.” BBC added, “TV pictures apparently showed several police officers lying on the ground covered in blood.”
A police official told news agencies that elite troops have now been called to the scene. What’s really frightening is that gunmen can just walk into a training school and perpetrate such attacks. With Zardari just now lifting Governor rule in Punjab, will the vacuum of power lead to further chaos?
CHUP will continue to provide more information as further details come in.
UPDATE 1209 [EST]: GEO is reporting that the gunmen are firing kalashnikovs inside the training center, noting they walked into the academy and initiated the attack. A bomb blast was heard, which was followed by grenade launches. The firing that started after is still continuing. GEO is reporting 15 dead and 18 injured.
UPDATE 1215 [EST]: GEO is reporting that paramilitary forces [rangers] has now arrived on the scene. A security official told Reuters that 10 police officers had been killed and 50 people wounded.
UPDATE 715 [EST]: Media outlets report the police academy has been “retaken” by Pakistani security forces, although Dawn noted that official confirmations on the development have not yet been made. BBC News reported that television footage showed paramilitary troops celebrating on the roof of the compound. Dawn added, “Earlier, the Associated Press said four of the gunmen who attacked the academy in the Manawan area on Lahore’s outskirts were killed, while a fifth was in custody.” Government official Rao Iftikhar also stated earlier that about 11 of the gunmen remained holed up at the top floor of a building in the compound, and they were holding some 35 police hostage. The BBC reported that up to 40 people were killed, and 80 injured, “but the situation remains confused.”
UPDATE 735 [EST]: Bloomberg cited Punjab governor Salman Taseer, who stated, “We condemn the attack,” adding that the gunmen appear“well trained and equipped with automatic weapons and hand grenades.” [Other sources noted the gunmen were better trained than the police academy trainees!] Television reports cited witnesses who said the method of today’s raid was similar to the March 3 attack on a bus carrying Sri Lanka’s cricket team in Lahore.
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This is awful. Where is Taseer and his resignation? Does he have any shame?
This is so eerily reminiscent of the Mumbai attacks. Difference being that there are more of them then in Mumbai and it seems like the attackers made no efforts as to disguise themselves.
So it makes you wonder if they were local people cos foreigners would atleast have made a show of not getting caught.
I just think it’s horrible that people can just walk into a building and sieze it. Especially soon after the Sri Lankan cricket team attacks – I wonder if we can point to the political vacuum in Punjab as reason to why all this chaos can take place in the first place.
This is so frightening. No one is safe in Pakistan.
i agree. where is the governor’s resignation. is there no accountability??
He’s posing for the “Eye Spy” section of The Sunday Times.
This is truly a tragedy.
What i don’t understand though is why the comments are looking for the Governor to resign? Sure he has done a piss poor job but at this time of emergency unless we have a substitute ready to go lets not divert the attention from the terrorist act to politics. In my opinion, firing or removing current administration as a first step is a bad idea. At least allow them to complete the first objective, which is to figure out who is responsible for this and apprehend the criminals. Firing/removing high ranking govt officials as a first step has been employed by almost every single Pakistani administration and what is worse is that they have no substitute, alternate POA, or a replacement at the time.
This is a problem that has infested Pakistani administration for decades, which is the concept of “lets do something first and think/plan later”.
I don’t think Salman Taseer will resign, and you’re right F, I don’t think it will do very much but add to the political turmoil Pakistan is experiencing at the time. I do think that the provincial government needs to get their ducks in order because I really think the last two attacks have highlighted the incompetency of the security forces and the government’s inability to provide security to its citizens.
While I agree with F that the government must figure out who the criminals are and apprehend them, it is also necessary to let government officials know that a democracy requires greater accountability and they are answerable to the public. This is especially important since this act was conducted so soon after the attack on the Sri Lankan team and in a manner that bears many similarities to the previous attack.
If democracy required accountability and foresight in Pakistan then we wouldn’t have a person such as Zardari as our President.
I agree with you O that we need to have accountability in Pakistan. Having said that we need accountability at every level from the lowest to the highest. That is not something we can achieve overnight by firing the Governor or top administrative officials in case of emergencies or govt change. Authorities must figure out how the terrorist knew about specific details of the police academy, as apparently they orchestrated their act from one of the tallest buildings in the academy. In case of Sri Lankan team how did they know specific route? suppose that is not hard to figure out then how were they able to set themselves up calmly in one of the most crowded places in Lahore?. Inside job? perhaps not. Inside informants? for sure.
Pakistan has had a long history for lack of accountability and pointing blame in all directions. It is unfortunately ingrained in our system from the top govt official to the lowest rank govt clerk (private sector is no exception). Unfortunately I don’t see any change in the foreseeable future, with the current govt and opposition parties.
[…] CHUP! – Changing Up Pakistan questions: What’s really frightening is that gunmen can just walk into a training school and perpetrate such attacks. With Zardari just now lifting Governor rule in Punjab, will the vacuum of power lead to further chaos? […]
I don’t see how anyone could possibly be blamed for this, except the attackers themselves. Police responded as best as they could given the situation on hand. Finger pointing is just not appropriate here.
Coldolences to the bereaved. Sad that these poor cadets had to go through all this. I havent read much about it but whatever little I have, it seems that this is a clear sign ot the mess that this nation has got itself into. Be it due to the regimes that goverened it or be it the current “GeoPolitical Abberation” as someone on some other blog termed it as, the point that there are more terror attacks and deaths in Pakistan than anywhere else in the world every week shows how poor and fragile the setup has become.
Kals, you are right, it is scary to imagine that someone can simply walk into a high security facility and seize it. Goose Bumps stuff.
Some alarming things that come to mind (Especially since these are again being compared with the Mumbai Attacks).
A) That the attacks were made on a Police Training Facility where new recruits were being trained. The purpose of this attack is going to be the toughest thing to crack since no civilian was attacked. Ideally all such attacks are on civilian facilities to gain maximum mileage out of it.
B) The very reason that the attack was not on a civilian facility differs it from the Mumbai Attack. 1 – The attack seems to be against the state and hence is more revolutionary in nature, which was not the case in Mumbai. 2 – The chances of squeezing something out as ransome was remote as no civilian lives were involved.
C) The location of the attack is fairly vague and baffling. A police facility which is High Security and is full of weapons. And since no civilians were involved the authorities would not have thought twice for a full on attack on the terrorists. Again not a similar situation to the Mumbai Attacks where the Commandoes had to ascertain before they fired on anyone in Taj and Oberoi to minimise collateral damage of civilian life. In This case the army or the commandoes would have fired at will to bring situation under control. It would have been relatively easier to identify the terrorists from the hostages too. The cadets and instructors etc. would have had the typical mannerism and disciplined replies diffrentiating them from the attackers who, from what media reports say, were of Pushto Origin.
So it seems like no one’s taking the fall for this. Not Taseer, not Malik and definitely not one of the police officials.
What the heck? Even in India, the Home Minister resigned when something went wrong on his watch. When will our Pakistani officials learn…
I read this morning that Warlord Baitullla Mahsood
called in and claimed responsibility. Looks like he is
retaliating back at the state institutions for loses he suffered from all the drone attacks. THis brazen attack only shows that he is taking a cue from the Mumbai attack and is ready for a showdown.
Shahbaz is back with a vengenance. Here’s a quote from the NYTimes article.
Shahbaz Sharif said effects of two major terror attacks on Lahore in the last month would have been mitigated — or the attacks might not have happened at all — if the provincial officials had been paying attention to security matters instead of the political machinations resulting from executive rule.
The asia times has a detailed breakdown of the attack.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KD01Df02.html
TTV India-
The motivation behind attacking a police facility and (overpowering the recruits) was to highlight how fragile our security structure is in Pakistan. It also served to intimidate recruits from joining Pakistan’s police force. Ultimately day-to-day security in Pak needs to be administered by a powerful police force, and this attack served to undermine it and intimidate people from bolstering it.
We are waiting still waiting for the Inquiry and the real culprits to be brought in front of the Nation.
[…] cricket match in Lahore. Six police guards were killed in the ambush. Later that month on March 30, gunmen attacked the Manawan police academy near Lahore, killing 13 people. All attacks occurred in broad daylight. All were undoubtedly […]