Over 40 killed as terrorists storm police academy in Pakistan

October 25, 2016 07:45

At least 44 people were killed and more than a hundred wounded in an overnight raid by terrorists on a police academy in southwest Pakistan, officials said Tuesday, after declaring a military counter-operation was finished.

The attack on the Balochistan Police College, located 20 kilometres east of provincial capital Quetta, began around 11:10 pm on Monday, with gunfire continuing to ring out from the site hours later.

Sarfaraz Bugti, the home minister of Balochistan province, told reporters assembled at the site early Tuesday that the sprawling compound had been attacked by three terrorists equipped with suicide jackets, revising down an earlier estimate of "five to six" assailants.

"They first targeted the watch tower sentry, and after exchanging fire killed him and were able to enter the academy grounds," he said.

He later tweeted that the death toll stood at 44 while 118 had been wounded, making the attack the third deadliest in Pakistan this year.

Major General Sher Afgan, chief of the paramilitary Frontier Corps in Balochistan, which led the counter-operation, said "the attack was over in around three hours after we arrived".

He added that communications intercepts showed the terrorists belonged to the Al-Alimi faction of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi terrorist group -- which is affiliated with the Pakistani Taliban.

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