LAHORE, PAKISTAN (AP) - Attackers armed with assault rifles and hand grenades struck a police training academy in eastern Pakistan on Monday, triggering a shootout that killed eight officers in the same area where Sri Lanka’s cricket team was ambushed less than a month ago.
The gunbattle was still going on more than an hour after the attack began on the outskirts of Lahore, with paramilitary rangers joining the fight, according to officials and live footage from the scene.
“It is a complete panic here. We do not have any idea how many the attackers are, and how many of them are dead, or hiding in nearby buildings,” officer Syed Ahmad Mobin told The Associated Press. “We are fighting them.”
The attack, which also wounded at least 20, underscored the growing threat of militancy to nuclear-armed Pakistan, which is under U.S. pressure to battle al-Qaida and Taliban militants on its soil.
Most of the militant violence has occurred along Pakistan’s northwest border with Afghanistan, but its eastern front has not escaped, with Lahore witnessing some brazen assaults.
In early March, a group of gunmen ambushed the visiting cricket team in a crowded city traffic circle, sparking a battle that left six police officers and a driver dead and wounded several of the players.
Monday’s attack occurred as dozens of police officers carried out morning drills. The shootout killed at least eight officers, said police official Mohammed Afzal, who also confirmed the wounded toll.
Lahore police chief Haji Habibur Rehman told Pakistan’s ARY news channel that six to seven attackers were believed to be involved in the shooting at the Manawan Police Training Center. He said the police had sought the help of the paramilitary troops.
Television footage showed several officers lying on the ground, while some crawled on their hands and knees to escape the firing. Ambulances rushed to the scene, taking away the wounded.
It was not immediately clear what group might be behind Monday’s attack, but the earlier assault on the Sri Lankan team _ which featured heavily armed, backpack-toting gunmen besieging a populated area _ bore similarities to last year’s siege of the Indian city of Mumbai.
India has blamed the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba for that assault, and Pakistan has taken several of the outfit’s alleged leaders into custody. Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is largely based in eastern Punjab province, has denied involvement in either Mumbai or the cricket team attack.
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Associated Press writers Asif Shahzad and Munir Ahmad in Islamabad contributed to this report.
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