QUEETA/ KABUL (SW): President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani has condemned a deadly attack on police academy in Pakistan’s southern Queeta city.
Ghani said in a message that with this heinous act the terrorists have once again proved that they do not differentiate between religion, cast and creed. Calling for the need to end differentiating between the ‘good and bad’ terrorists, the President underlined the need for comprehensive regional and global policy against terrorism.
Heavily-armed militants wearing suicide vests stormed a police academy in Quetta, killing at least 60 people and wounding dozens more, Balochistan Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti said Tuesday, in one of the deadliest extremist attacks this year. Three gunmen burst into the sprawling academy, targeting sleeping quarters home to some 700 recruits, and sent terrified young men aged between 15 and 25 fleeing.
According to the Dawn News, communication intercepts showed the attack was carried out by Al-Alimi faction of the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LJ) militant group, IG Frontier Corps (FC) Major General Sher Afgan said.
Major General Sher Afgan, chief of the paramilitary FC in Balochistan, which led the counter-operation, said “the attack was over in around three hours after we arrived”. Afgan said communication intercepts showed the attackers belonged to LJ's Al-Alimi faction, which is affiliated with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The group itself, however, has not claimed the attack.
Army Chief General Raheel Sharif arrived in Quetta on Tuesday, ISPR reported. He was accompanied by DG ISI Lt-Gen Rizwan Akhtar and DG MI Major General Nadeem Zaki Manj. During his visit, Gen Raheel attended the funeral prayers of those killed in the attack.
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