Islamabad, June 25: A Pakistani police commando holds his position behind a wall as smoke rises from the siege of a police station in Kolachi near Dera Ismail Khan on Saturday, June 25, 2011.
At least 16 people have been killed and several others injured in a shootout that broke out after Taliban militants stormed a police station in northwest Pakistan.
Six militants armed with assault rifles and hand grenades attacked the police station in the Kolachi area of Dera Ismail Khan, located some 240 kilometers (149 miles) west of Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on Saturday and took a number of police officers hostage after killing the guards at the gate, DPA reported.
The ten police officers and all the six attackers were killed in a gun battle between the militants and security forces that lasted for more than two hours. Around half a dozen security personnel were injured.
“The hostage situation has ended. Three of the terrorists were bombers and they blew themselves up while three more died in exchange of fire with our security forces,” Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said. “We have lost ten policemen.”
The burqa-clad attackers had hoped to secure the release of other militants.
“The attackers had come prepared for days of siege and hostage-taking to secure the release of other militants,” Hussain said.
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack and said it was carried out to avenge the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
“Those who have collaborated with the Americans should expect more similar attacks by our brave fighters,” TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said.
US President Barack Obama announced that Osama bin Laden was killed by US forces on May 1 (May 2 Pakistan time) during a military attack on a compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, near the capital Islamabad.
A US official later announced that bin Laden’s body was hurriedly buried at sea.
The Pakistani government has acknowledged that it had no advance knowledge of the attack that was conducted on its territory.
Senior US officials in Washington say it was decided that working with Pakistan could have jeopardized the mission.
—-Agencies