Pakistan’s Taliban warned of more attacks against law enforcement officers on Saturday, a day after a suicide squad stormed a police compound in Karachi.
The police are often used on the front lines of Pakistan’s war with the Taliban and are often the target of militants who accuse them of extrajudicial killings.
Last month, more than 80 officers were killed when a suicide bomber blew up a mosque inside a police compound in the northwestern city of Peshawar, drawing criticism from some junior ranks who said they had to do military work. have to do.
The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) said in an English-language statement on Saturday: “Policemen must stay away from our war with the Slave Army, otherwise attacks on safe havens of top police officers will continue.”
We would like to once again warn the security agencies to stop killing innocent prisoners in fake encounters otherwise the intensity of future attacks will be more serious.
A Taliban suicide squad stormed the sprawling Karachi police office complex in the southern port city on Friday evening, killing two attackers and a third blowing himself up in a gunbattle that lasted hours.
Officials said two police officers, an army ranger and a civilian sanitation worker were killed in the attack.
The heavily guarded compound in the heart of the city is home to dozens of administrative and residential buildings as well as hundreds of officials and their families.
A senior investigator told AFP that initial investigations indicated all three attackers were from northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the TTP’s power base and the site of the Peshawar blast less than three weeks ago.
“They entered the police headquarters complex through the rear entrance, which is used by the residents of the police colony,” the investigator said on condition of anonymity.
fierce gun battle
Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah told Samaa TV that the attackers entered the compound after firing rockets at the gate before taking over the main Karachi police office building and taking shelter on the roof.
The sound of gunfire and grenade explosions echoed through the neighborhood for hours as security forces slowly made their way up five floors to end the siege.
The stairs riddled with bullets were giving evidence of fierce firing.
The TTP, which is different from the Afghan Taliban but with a similar hardline Islamist ideology, emerged in Pakistan in 2007 and unleashed a wave of violence that was largely quelled by a military campaign launched in late 2014 I went.
But since the Afghan Taliban took over Kabul in August 2021 and the end of a months-long ceasefire between the TTP and Islamabad in November last year, attacks – mostly targeting security forces – have increased again.
“The elimination of terrorist organizations has unfortunately not been a priority of the state,” political analyst Tauseef Ahmad Khan told AFP.
“Such attacks will continue to happen until the state meaningfully and completely changes its policy towards extremism and terrorism.”
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has vowed to end the violence.
He tweeted late on Friday night, “Pakistan will not only root out terrorism but also bring terrorists to justice and kill them.”
“This great nation is determined to put an end to this evil once and for all.”
Condemning the attack, State Department spokesman Ned Price said the US stood firmly with the people of Pakistan against this terrorist attack.
“Violence is not the answer, and it must stop.”
Investigators blamed an affiliate of the Pakistan Taliban for the January blast at the Peshawar police compound.
Provinces across the country announced they were on high alert following that attack, beefing up checkpoints and deploying additional security forces.
Interior Minister Sanaullah said of Friday’s Karachi attack, “There is a general threat across the country, but there was no specific threat to this place.”
In their statement, the Taliban called the raid “a blessed martyrdom” and warned of more to come.
This attack is a message to all anti-Islamic security agencies of Pakistan… Army and police will be targeted at every important place till the way is paved for the implementation of Islamic system in the country.’
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)