Islamabad, December 05 :Terrorists attacked a mosque frequented by military officers and their families in the garrison town of Rawalpindi on Friday killing 40 people. Six military officers were among the dead.
A military statement said four attackers hurled grenades, then opened fire as they rushed toward the mosque, which was located on Parade Lane in a military residential colony, just a few kilometers from the capital. Two suicide bombers then blew themselves up inside, while the other two were killed in an exchange of gunfire, it said.
Among the dead were Maj. Gen. Bilal Omar, director general of Armored Corps and brother-in-law of former Prime Minister Mustafa Jatoi; a brigadier; two lieutenant colonels; one major and a retired major as well as three regular soldiers, military spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said. Seventeen children and 10 civilians were also killed.
Witnesses said two of the militants entered the mosque, which had up to 200 worshippers inside, while others ran into buildings nearby. They opened fire as the imam was about to begin the Friday prayers after the sermon. Security forces exchanged fire with the assailants for an hour before they blew themselves up.
Khawaja Suhail, a resident of Westridge, told Arab News that the mosque was partially destroyed. He said access to the mosque was mostly restricted to soldiers and their families. Nasir Ali Sheikh saw the attackers at the mosque as he walked there to pray. He said they were dressed in traditional Pakistani shalwar-kameez and carried hand grenades, automatic weapons and ammunition belts slung around their shoulders. “They were killing people like animals,” he said. “I couldn’t believe what was happening.”
TV footage showed the mosque’s walls and prayer mats covered in blood and shattered glass lining the floor. Three helicopters hovered overhead while trucks carrying commando teams and ambulances raced through the cordoned-off area as soldiers with rifles ready kept onlookers and traffic away.
Nasir Ali, the son of an army officer, told the private Dawn television channel: “It was a terrible scene … They were firing on whoever was there. There were bodies on the road. I was hiding behind the trees nearby.”
“They are taking revenge for the Pakistani Army’s successful operations in Swat and Waziristan regions,” Interior Minister Rehman Malik said.
Pakistan is in the grip of a fierce insurgency, with more than 2,600 people killed in attacks in the last two and a half years. Taleban fighters frequently target security forces and military installations.
In October, militants stormed the army headquarters in Rawalpindi, sparking a daylong siege that left 22 people dead and struck at the heart of the nuclear-armed country’s most powerful establishment.
There had been a lull in attacks in recent weeks, until on Wednesday when a young man wearing a suicide vest approached a checkpoint outside a navy complex in Islamabad, blowing himself up and killing two naval policemen.
—Agencies