RAWALPINDI: Pakistan's army says commandos have caught the last militant who attacked its headquarters and took dozens of hostages.
Pakistan Army "ZINDABAD"
In Picture, Pakistan Army Commandos are in Action against Terrorists.
Spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas says the capture Sunday morning brings to an end a 22-hour standoff in the garrison city of Rawalpindi outside the capital. He says the final militant who was caught is wounded.
Three captives and four hostage-takers were killed, as were two of the rescuers.
The audacious assault on the country's military establishment showed the strength of militants allied with al-Qaida and the Taliban ahead of a planned army offensive on their heartland in South Waziristan along the Afghan border and signaled that any push there would be met with more attacks across Pakistan.
The government said the siege had steeled its resolve to go through with the South Waziristan offensive, calling it ‘inevitable.’ The United States and Pakistan's other Western allies want the country to take more action against insurgents also blamed for soaring attacks on US and Nato troops in Afghanistan.
Explosions and gunshots rang out as commandos moved into a building in the complex just before dawn Sunday, while a helicopter hovered in the sky. Three ambulances were seen driving out of the heavily fortified base close to the capital, Islamabad.
Two hours after the raid began, two new explosions were heard. The army said it was ‘mopping up’ the remaining insurgents.
Up to five heavily armed militants took the hostages after they and about four other assailants attacked the main gate of the army headquarters Saturday, killing six soldiers, including a brigadier and a lieutenant colonel. Four of the attackers, who were wearing army uniforms, were killed.
No group claimed responsibility, but authorities said they were sure that the Taliban or an allied militant group were behind the strike. The city is filled with security checkpoints and police roadblocks.
Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said 20 of the hostages had been kept in a room guarded by a militant wearing a suicide vest who was shot and killed before he managed to detonate his explosives.
He said the 25 who were freed included soldiers and civilians. Three captives were killed, along with four militants, he said. ‘It was a very skilled rescue operation,’ he said.
Saturday's siege followed a car bombing that killed 49 on Friday in the northwestern city of Peshawar and the bombing of a UN aid agency earlier in the week that killed five in Islamabad. The string of attacks destroyed any remaining hope that the militants had been left a spent force by the death of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud in a US missile strike in August.
A week ago, Baitullah Mehsud's successor, Hakeemullah Mehsud, told journalists summoned to a briefing in South Waziristan that the Taliban would launch more attacks on military, government and other targets in the country.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said a Waziristan offensive was now ‘inevitable.’ ‘We are going to come heavy on you,’ he warned the militants.
In its brazenness and sophistication, Saturday's assault resembled attacks in March in the eastern city of Lahore by teams of militants against the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team and a police training center, which the insurgents took over for eight hours before security forces retook it.
The attack began shortly before noon when the gunmen attacked the main gate with assault rifles and grenades after bundling out of a white van that reportedly had army license plates.
‘There was fierce firing, and then there was a blast,’ said Khan Bahadur, a shuttle van driver who was standing outside the gate. ‘Soldiers were running here and there,’ he said. ‘The firing continued for about a half-hour. There was smoke everywhere. Then there was a break, and then firing again.’
After a 45-minute gunfight, four of the attackers were killed, said Abbas, who initially said that the assault was over and the situation ‘under full control.’
But more than an hour later, gunshots rang out from the headquarters compound, and Abbas then confirmed that other gunmen had eluded security forces and slipped into the compound.
A police intelligence report obtained by The Associated Press on Saturday had warned in July that members of the Taliban along with Jaish-e-Mohammad, a militant group based in the Punjab province, were planning to attack army headquarters after disguising themselves as soldiers.
DAWN News
Waqas Anis Writer aashubutt.blogspot.com
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