Karachi, April 4
At least 10 gunmen stormed into a police station in the southern Pakistan city of Karachi early today, killing at least five policemen and wounding one after demanding the officers recite Islamic verses, the police said. One of the attackers died in the shootout near the airport in the city, Pakistan’s largest and the scene of frequent religious violence. The rest of the assailants escaped by car, said Syad Kamal Shah, police chief in southern Sindh province.
“The police is looking for who is responsible and what were the motives,’’ he said.
Policeman Hasan Jatoi, who was wounded in the gunfight, told Reuters the clean-shaven men shot several of the officers in the head at close range.
Tension is high in Pakistan following a raid involving about 5,000 troops on 400 to 500 al Qaeda and other Islamist fighters last month in the tribal region of South Waziristan near the Afghan border in which more than 120 people were killed.
Pakistani police arrested a suspected Islamic militant with explosives in Karachi last week. Some officials said he had been plotting to attack the Prime Minister but others denied the Premier was a target. —
Reuters
