(Karachi) At least four people were killed in an attack Friday night by a Pakistani Taliban suicide squad against a major police compound in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and its economic and financial capital.
Three armed men with explosive vests attacked at around 7:30 p.m. local time (9:30 a.m. Eastern Time) a compound consisting of several official police buildings and residences housing hundreds of police officers and their families.
For more than three hours, violent exchanges of gunfire and explosions of grenades were heard, before the security forces managed to regain control of the building, the attack resulting in the death of the attackers.
“Four people were killed in the attack, including two policemen, a (paramilitary) ranger and a cleaner,” Murtaza Wahab Siddiqui, the provincial government spokesman, told AFP. Sindh, of which Karachi is the capital.
“The operation ended with the death of the three terrorists,” he added. “Preliminary findings suggest that three terrorists were involved in the attack.”
PHOTO ASIF HASSAN, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
This occurred a few weeks after a suicide attack on January 30 against a mosque located in the police headquarters of Peshawar (north-west), in which 83 police officers and a civilian were killed.
The Pakistani Taliban’s Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the assault. “Mujahideen attacked the Karachi police office,” a TTP spokesperson said without further details in a WhatsApp message sent to AFP.
The United States “strongly condemns the terrorist attack,” responded State Department spokesman Ned Price.
“We stand firmly with the people of Pakistan in the face of this terrorist attack,” he wrote in a tweet, adding, “Violence is not the answer and it must stop.”
Deterioration of security
The attack began when the assailants fired “a rocket at the entrance gate” of the complex, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah told Samaa TV.
It ended around 10:30 p.m. local time (10:30 a.m. Eastern Time), when an AFP correspondent heard two loud explosions followed by several bursts of gunfire.
This reporter had previously seen dozens of ambulances and police vehicles rushing to the site of the attack.
Karachi in the south is a megacity of 20 million people and the country’s main commercial gateway with its port overlooking the Arabian Sea.
Pakistan has been facing deteriorating security for some months, especially since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan in August 2021.
After several years of relative calm, the attacks have resumed with renewed vigour, led mainly by the TTP and by EI-K, the regional branch of the jihadist group Islamic State (IS).
In the year since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, attacks have increased by 50% in Pakistan, according to the Pakistani institute PIPS.
high alert
The TTP is a movement distinct from that of the new Afghan leaders, but which shares common roots with it.
In November, the group denounced a fragile ceasefire with Islamabad and promised to carry out attacks throughout Pakistan. Since then, he has multiplied attacks targeting the security forces.
The authorities had attributed the Peshawar attack to Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a more radical faction, sometimes affiliated sometimes dissident, of the TTP, which itself dissociated itself from this attack.
The country had been placed on high alert after this attack, with additional security forces deployed and checkpoints multiplied.
During the twenty years of American occupation in Afghanistan, after the fall of the previous Taliban regime in 2001, the armed groups at work along the border between the two countries had to hide from the eyes of drones.
But analysts believe they have regained their freedom of maneuver with the return of the Taliban to power. Pakistan accuses them of letting these groups use Afghan soil to plan their attacks, which Kabul denies.
Karachi has already experienced several major attacks in recent years, mainly claimed by Baloch separatist groups.
“Once again the terrorists have attacked Karachi. Such acts of cowardice cannot break the will and determination of the police and law enforcement agencies. The whole nation stands alongside the police and security organs,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a statement.