LAHORE // As the eight-hour siege of the Police Training Centre at Manawa in Lahore ended, elite police commandos emerged from the bullet-pocked building amid loud applause from hundreds of onlookers. There were cheers of Allahu Akbar (God is Great), echoing the shouts of the militants who had taken over the centre earlier that day, but this time they were coming from the security forces and their supporters.
As Pakistan is racked by militant violence and both sides claim to be fighting in the name of Islam, analysts predict this latest siege is just a sign of things to come. The attack on Monday morning left at least 12 dead, including six police trainees and two civilians. Four militants were killed while at least 80 police recruits were wounded. The anger among local villagers, who stood on rooftops and outside the security cordon set up by police as commandos and rangers tried to regain control of the training centre, was palpable.
"Can a Muslim kill a Muslim?" said Abdur Rashid, 43, an auto-mechanic who lives near the centre. Another man wearing a shirt with the colours of the Pakistani flag worked up the crowd. "Long Live Pakistan", "Long Live Punjab police", he shouted as others joined in the chant. Lahore, also known as the cultural capital of Pakistan, is the latest target of a series of terrorist attacks, and was hit just weeks ago when around a dozen armed men attacked a bus carrying Sri Lankan cricket players on March 3. The cricketers survived the attack but six people were killed and the attackers managed to escape with ease.
It was not immediately clear if the two attacks were linked. Monday's attack was an attempt to make the authorities feel vulnerable, said one high ranking police officer in Lahore, who was present at the training centre. Security forces arrested four suspects, one of whom was confirmed as one of the attackers, Pakistani officials said. The individual was identified as an Afghan national hailing from Paktia province, interior minister Rehman Malik told Pakistan television.
Mr Malik said the attacker came to Lahore more than two weeks ago and had rented a house along with his fellow attackers. The group, he said, were linked to Baitullah Mehsud, leader of the Pakistani Taliban. Mr Malik also said they had planned the attack in South Waziristan, the restive tribal area straddling the border with Afghanistan and a hotbed of militancy. Lahore police officials said they had been expecting an attack and security in the city had been bolstered since March 25, after they received an intelligence report.
About 800 police cadets were enrolled at the training centre, a dilapidated building on the outskirts of Lahore with paint peeling from the dusty walls. With a boundary wall barely 1.5 metres high, security seemed to be lacking. On a typical day, the young recruits start their training at 5.30am with an hour of physical exercise. After taking half an hour for breakfast, they assemble on the parade ground.
On Monday, that routine was broken by the staccato of gunfire and explosion of grenades. Gunmen armed with assault rifles entered the premises of the training centre at around 7.30am after scaling the rear boundary wall, lobbing grenades and firing indiscriminately at the young recruits, most in their early twenties, who were assembled in the parade ground. They then made their way indoors where they holed up on the rooftop and the third floor of the training centre.
Before long they found themselves surrounded by around 1,000 police and commandos, many of whom had been brought in from surrounding cities and provinces. Snipers positioned themselves around the premises. Helicopters hovered over head. "They fired straight at us and it was very intense," said Allah Rakha, 20, a commando who took part in the operation and who was wearing a bulletproof vest. "They had small machine guns, pistols and hand grenades as well as suicide vests."
Commandos who took part in the gunfight said three of the attackers blew themselves up after realising they had no chance of escape. "The Pakistan army strengthened the cordon and provided cover fire. Our police officers completed the operation," said Mushtaq Sukhera, the Lahore police deputy inspector general. "They announced through megaphones that the terrorists should surrender but they blew themselves up."
By 3pm, the operation had ended. Pakistani officials deemed the operation "well co-ordinated and successful". But analysts said the attack and those that had preceded it were a sign of things to come. "The attacks were designed to demonstrate that the war is not limited to Pakistan's periphery, but can take place in the heart of the country," said Arif Rafiq, a New York-based analyst who has worked for several think tanks.
"Despite the redirection of many Pakistani militant groups towards Afghanistan, some remain keen on combating the Pakistani state." Others analysts agreed. "The frequency and scope of terrorism in Pakistan will increase," said Tariq Fatemi, a former foreign secretary told Duniya television. "The Taliban want to show they are effective as ever, especially after the new strategy announced by the Americans."
According to an editorial in Lahore's English-language Daily Times, the location of the attack was symbolic. "Just as President Asif Ali Zardari announced a beefing up of the police in all the provinces, the message from the terrorists is: don't join the police and those who are already employed should resign and go home." smasood@thenational.ae