SUKKUR/KARACHI - Suicide car bombers and gunmen Wednesday attacked a government complex housing offices of Pakistan’s top intelligence agencies – the ISI and MI – sparking a shootout that killed seven people.
The dead included four attackers, one intelligence agent and another government employee, in what was an unprecedented attack in the otherwise sleepy southern town of Sukkur. State TV said at least 38 people were wounded in what has been one of the bloodiest attacks blamed on the militants in Pakistan so far during the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramazan.
Police said the attackers stormed the complex of offices and homes for senior officials, including those belonging to the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI), as people broke their fast after sundown. They detonated two bombs – one outside a police building and a car bomb outside the ISI office in the town, more than 1,000 kilometres south of the capital Islamabad.
More than an hour after the initial explosions, the gun battle still raged as security services hunted up to 10 militants who detonated four bombs in the heavily guarded compound, Masood Bangash, the deputy superintendent of police in Sukkur, said. Television footage aired after the attack showed damaged buildings and ambulance crews taking the wounded to local hospitals.
Although there was no immediate claim of responsibility, it is likely to revive fears that reach of militancy is again spreading in the county of 180 million people that has been struggling with impact of US-led Afghan invasion. The ISI has been a frequent target for Pakistani Taliban as they wage a domestic insurgency.
A police official said apparently a suicide bomber first blew himself up in front of a police building and then a second suicide bomber detonated the explosive-filled car outside the ISI office. “Armed people have attacked. Apparently it is an organised terrorist attack, we have sent a heavy contingent of police to the site,” Javed Odho, a Sukkur police officer, told AFP by telephone.
“One suicide bomber detonated an explosive laden car in front of ISI office and other militants started firing on police,” Masood Bangash told AFP by telephone. A hospital official told AFP that the bodies of an ISI agent and the other government employee had been brought into the morgue, and that 15 other people had been admitted with injuries. “A total of seven people were killed and several injured,” said Major General Rizwan Akhtar, head of the paramilitary force, Sindh Rangers. “The dead included three attackers, two suicide bombers and two others,” he added. “It was ISI headquarters which was attacked. The gate and front walls have been blown away,” he said.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif strongly condemned the attack, which he said resulted in the “loss of precious human lives and injured many”. The attack raises questions about the new government’s aim of starting talks with militant groups. Nawaz pledged to seek negotiations and reconciliation with militant groups who were willing to talk before he won last May’s elections, but attacks have increased since he took office and the government is yet to present a vialble security strategy.
Such attacks are also embarrassing for Pakistan’s military, which has ruled the country for more than half of its 65-year history. The ISI has been attacked several times in the past by the militants. In May 2009, a suicide attack outside a police building next to the local ISI headquarters in Lahore killed 24 people. In November that year a powerful car bomb ripped through ISI’s headquarters in Peshawar, killing 10 people. A month later in Multan two suicide attackers fired at soldiers while driving a truck bomb past security checkpoints in an attempt to approach the local office of the ISI.