Around 59 people killed in Quetta attack and 117 critically injured when gunmen stormed a Pakistani police training academy in the southwestern city of the state said government officials on Tuesday. At the time of an attack, about 200 trainees were stationed at the facility and some were taken hostage during the attack which lasted for five years.
Killed people were mostly police cadets
Home minister of Baluchistan province, the capital of Quetta, Mir Sarfaraz Bugti had confirmed early on Tuesday that five to six gunmen had attacked a dormitory inside the training facility while cadets slept.
Still no group has taken responsibility for killing people in Quetta attack, however, one of the top military commanders in Baluchistan, General Sher Afgan, told media that calls captured between the attackers and their handlers suggested they were from the sectarian militant group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, whose roots are in the heartland Punjab province, has a history of carrying out a sectarian attack in Baluchistan, particularly against the minority Hazara Shias, but although the motive of the attack is still unclear why they would attack the police academy, the home minister said.
According to the home ministry, Police, military and paramilitary personnel arrived at the spot within the 20 minutes and launched an operation which lasted around five hours.
The attack was pre-planned
As per the experts, the attack was pre-planned because Monday night’s attack was the deadliest in Pakistan was similar when a suicide bomber killed 70 people in an attack on mourners gathered at a hospital in Quetta in August and the recent attack was also aimed at gathering by the allegedly terrorist.
The bomber struck as the crowd of mostly lawyers and journalists over-crowded into the emergency ward of the hospital to accompany the body of a prominent lawyer who had been shot and killed in the city earlier in the day.
Militants fired from five different positions
Monday night’s attack also appeared well-planned and coordinated, with senior enforcement agencies saying that assailants had fired at the police training center five different positions.
Later the attackers entered the center’s hostel where around 250 police recruits were resting, said security officials. On the other hand, as per scene by local media, approximate three explosions were reported where people killed in Quetta attack.
Quetta has long been considered as a base for the Taliban, whose leadership has regularly held several meeting there in the past.
Baluchistan province in no strange to violence, with separatist fighters, are launching regular attacks on security forces for almost a decade and the military striking back.
