Pakistani troops storm army HQ, freeing 39 hostages
By Masroor Gilani (AFP) 4 hours ago
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan — Troops stormed Pakistan's army headquarters Sunday ending a day-long hostage drama and freeing 39 people held by militants who brazenly struck at the heart of the military establishment.
Three hostages, two soldiers and four suspected Taliban militants were killed in a rescue operation hailed by the military as "highly successful", despite a total of 19 dead since the rebels launched their assault.
Six soldiers and four other militants had already been killed in the nearly 24-hour siege, which began Saturday in the garrison city of Rawalpindi and was the third dramatic militant strike in the nuclear-armed nation in a week.
The audacious attack exposed Pakistan's vulnerability in the face of a Taliban militia who have regrouped after the death of their leader and are determined to thwart an army assault on their tribal hideouts, analysts said.
Military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said troops went in at about 6:00 am (0000 GMT) and met with resistance from five militants armed with suicide vests and barricaded in the building in the city adjoining Islamabad.
"Thirty-nine hostages were rescued and three were killed," Abbas told AFP, adding that the captives were shot dead by the militants.
"The militants had suicide jackets, improvised explosive devices, grenades... they wanted to blow up all the hostages and cause maximum damage."
He said that two soldiers and four of the insurgents were killed in the hours-long rescue operation. The apparent leader of the militant team escaped and detonated a number of explosives, before being injured and arrested.
"The operation is over. It was highly successful," Abbas added.
He said that intelligence officials were investigating possible links between the sole surviving militant -- named as Aqeel, also known as Doctor Usman -- and the March attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore.
The Rawalpindi attack bore similarities to the March gun-and-grenade attack, which left six policemen and two civilians dead. Abbas said the militant held Sunday had the same name and alias as one of the Lahore attack suspects.
The drama unfolded just before midday on Saturday, when nine gunmen in military uniform and armed with automatic weapons and grenades drove up to the compound and shot their way through one checkpost.
Four militants and six soldiers were killed near a second post but the rest of the rebels fled and took the 42 military employees hostage.
There has been no claim of responsibility, but officials immediately blamed the Taliban.
"They are the enemies of Islam and Pakistan. All their actions are against the sovereignty of Pakistan," Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on a local television station.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) movement based in the northwest tribal belt and is blamed for most of the attacks that have killed more than 2,200 people in the country in two years.
The weekend siege came after a suicide car bomb on Friday killed 52 civilians at a busy market in the northwest city of Peshawar and an attack on a UN office in Islamabad last Monday left five aid workers dead.
Government ministers blamed the attacks on the Taliban, who have vowed to avenge the death of their leader Baitullah Mehsud in a US drone missile attack in August and are keen to deter an assault on their stronghold.
The military is wrapping up a fierce offensive against Taliban rebels in the northwestern Swat valley launched in April, with the army now poised to begin a similar assault in the nearby semi-autonomous tribal belt near Afghanistan.
Political and defence analyst Hasan Askari said the militant strikes showed the army had not broken the back of the Taliban, as they claim.
"This shows weaknesses in the security arrangements of the state agencies and the determination and commitment of the extremist Taliban," he told AFP.
Taliban and Al-Qaeda rebels who fled Afghanistan after the 2001 US-led invasion have carved out boltholes in the remote Pakistani mountains.
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kill talbaan
pakistan zindabad
pak fooj zindabad
mudasirRind 4 months ago
pak army tujhe salam
mudasirRind 4 months ago
good job pak army we pakistanis love fuck these gandoo talibans and afghans .these gandoo talibans are indian funde chootias they are not even muslims.fuck.pakistan zindabad.pakistan army paindabad.india ki maa ki choot america ki maa ki choot
mekeadan 4 months ago
@fperso please be sure to not make any children, thanks
ThingNation 1 year ago
Fperso... You are the main reason why people hate eachother. Go find a dark place and kill yourself.
God Bless the people of Pakistan! You will win against the Taliban! We are all with you.
rantinravin 1 year ago
@orakzai4u
Shut up u paki fucker ur a just a fool of those pashtoons who think pakistan is their county. Look what they do in paktunistan. These paki have ruined my country Afghanistan for decades by thier terrorist. These all is just a drama of pakistan to get more money from USA to kill more Pashtoon and distroy my country, i don,t give a damn what happning in pakistan my own country is on fire by pakistan and other countries.
fperso 1 year ago
@fperso fuck u
sitting ur aass back in ur filthy place calling this a fake u jerkkkkkkk
whole off my country is on fire and u r calling this fake motherfucker
orakzai4u 1 year ago
Just a drama of paki army haa they r da real terrorist who they r blaming ....
fperso 2 years ago
Man you are sick
pashtunnotpaki 2 years ago
I'm sure it was a mosque
howie1962 2 years ago