Sharjah 24 – AFP: At least four people were killed when a Pakistan Taliban suicide squad stormed a police compound Friday in the port city of Karachi, with a gun battle raging for hours as security forces went floor-to-floor through an office building in pursuit of the assailants.
The attack comes just weeks after a bomb blast at a police mosque in the country's northwest killed over 80 officers, and officials said late Friday that security would be stepped up in the capital Islamabad.
The Pakistan Taliban said its fighters stormed the tightly guarded Karachi Police Office compound, home to dozens of administrative and residential buildings as well as hundreds of officers and their families.
"Four people were killed in the attack, including two policemen, one ranger, and one sanitary worker," Sindh government spokesman Murtaza Wahab Siddiqui told AFP, adding 14 others were wounded.
"The operation has concluded with the killing of all three terrorists," he said.
A spokesman for Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility in a WhatsApp message to AFP.
Speaking on Samaa TV, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah called the attackers "terrorists... armed with grenades and other weapons" and said they fired at a gate with a rocket.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed Friday to stamp out the violence.
"Pakistan will not only uproot terrorism, but will kill the terrorists by bringing them to justice," he tweeted.
"This great nation is determined to end this evil forever."
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