Pakistani Terrorists Take On Police In Lahore

I've been noting for some time now that the government in Islamabad has barely been able to control its country and protect its citizens from the Islamists and Taliban who have gained control over territory far beyond just the frontier provinces. They've been striking at targets including the NATO logistics and supply lines from Peshawar, but today they attacked a police academy in Lahore, killing a significant number of Pakistani police. The number is at least 8 policemen killed, three civilians killed, and that death toll is expected to grow. More than 90 police were injured in the attack and the effort to retake the facility.

Leave it to the AP to conflate the number of police and civilians murdered along with the terrorists who caused the mayhem.

19 die in bloody siege at Pakistan police academy

A group of gunmen attacked a police academy and rampaged through it for hours Monday, throwing grenades, seizing hostages and killing at least eight police and three civilians before being overpowered by Pakistani security forces in armored vehicles and helicopters, authorities said.

Six militants were arrested and eight others died 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.

Officials said more than 90 officers were wounded by the attackers, some of whom wore police uniforms.

The highly coordinated attack underscored the threat that militancy poses to the U.S.-allied, nuclear-armed country and prompted Pakistan's top civilian security official to say that militant groups were "destabilizing the country."

The attack on the Manawan Police Training School began as dozens of the officers carried out morning drills. About 700 trainees were inside at the time.

The attacks show a sophistication and ability to infiltrate into secured facilities in order to cause mayhem and carnage.

Hot Air has additional details.

At the same time, a separate attack on Pakistani police resulted in 11 Pakistani policemen captured by Taliban elements in the Khyber tribal agency outside Peshawar. The Taliban surrounded the police outpost, and forced their surrender. That's on top of several other high profile attacks.

The Taliban captured 12 policemen after attacking a police outpost in the Khyber tribal agency in Pakistan's northwest. The atack capped a weekend of violence in the region surrounding Peshawar, the provincial capital of the Northwest Frontier Province.

A Taliban force surrounded the police outpost, disarmed the policemen, and kidnapped them, Rahat Gul, a spokesman for the Khyber administration told Reuters.

"Militants came to the Shin Qamar checkpost before dawn and disarmed our policemen and then bundled them into vehicles," Gul said. "We've launched a search but there's been no progress."

The Taliban have staged two other major attacks in Khyber since March 27. A Taliban suicide bomber detonated in the middle of a packed mosque in the Jamrud district in Pakistan's Khyber agency. More than 70 people have been reported killed and another 125 have been wounded. Several police and military officials were killed in the attack.

The Taliban are launching a significant offensive and the Pakistani government appears ill-prepared to deal with it.

UPDATE:
It really shouldn't come as a surprise that the Pakistanis believe that the Taliban were behind the attack, particularly the group led by Baitullah Mehsud. Mehsud has been leading the best trained and most disciplined group of terrorists of the various groups vying for control in the frontier provinces and within Pakistan proper. Mehsud's reach is growing each passing day, and the government seemingly is incapable of doing anything to stop him.

The terrorists stormed the barracks and barricaded themselves in the top floor before blowing themselves up.

Blood-soaked bedding was strewn with blackened body parts in a police barracks in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Monday after the last of the gunmen who stormed the building blew themselves up.

The attackers, armed with grenades and rifles, launched an assault on the police training centre during a morning drill session, shooting down recruits on their dusty parade ground.

They held off police and soldiers for about eight hours before the last three gunmen made a stand on the top floor of the three-storey building. They blew themselves up as security forces launched a final assault, police said.

At least eight recruits were killed and 89 wounded. Four gunmen were killed and three were captured, the government said. Rehman Malik, the Interior Ministry head, said the Pakistani Taliban were suspected of carrying out the attack.

The death toll remains uncertain.