Pakistan police academy attacked: 44 killed

Pakistani officials have announced the completion of a counter-offensive in response to gunmen who seized a police academy in the southwest of the country, killing at least 44 people.

Pakistani soldiers are deployed to the Balochistan Police College - Photo: AFP

AFP news agency said the attack on the Balochistan Police College, about 20 km east of the provincial capital Queeta, began at around 11:10 p.m. on October 24 (1:10 a.m. October 25 Vietnam time).

Witnesses said they could still hear gunfire inside the campus hours later.

Balochistan Home Minister Sarfaraz Bugti told reporters at a press conference this morning (October 25) that three gunmen armed with suicide vests attacked the police academy compound. Earlier reports said there were "five or six" attackers.

"They first targeted the clock tower and then exchanged fire and killed the guard to enter the school premises," Bugti said.

Mr Bugti also confirmed that the gunmen opened fire, killing at least 44 people and wounding 118. The Pakistani army quickly counterattacked with the support of helicopters.

This is the third deadly attack this year in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Reuters news agency quoted hospital officials as saying that 48 people were killed and 75 injured in the attack.

Soldiers stand guard outside the scene of the attack in Balochistan - Photo: Reuters

Major General Sher Afghan of the paramilitary Frontline Cooperation Corps in Balochistan, who commanded the counter-offensive, said "the counter-offensive ended about three hours after we arrived".

Mr Bugti said the dormitory was housing about 700 recruits at the time of the attack. Hundreds of cadets were rescued after the operation.

AFP said the counterattack took place in the dark while security personnel set up barricades and ambulances continuously entered and exited the area near the campus to take the injured to hospital.

Witnesses reported hearing several loud explosions inside the school.

"I saw three men with their faces covered and carrying AK rifles. They started shooting and entered the dormitory but I managed to climb over the wall and get out," a witness claiming to be a police cadet told AFP.

Balochistan is Pakistan's largest province, torn by ethnic conflict, Islamist violence and a decades-long separatist insurgency.

Many human rights groups have accused the Pakistani military of using force to suppress nationalists who are demanding autonomy and a share of the region's mineral resources.

In August, the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organization and the Pakistani Taliban's Jamaat-ul-Ahrar group jointly claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing targeting a hospital in Quetta that killed 73 people, including many local lawyers.

Pakistan has been involved in the fight against radical Islamist movements since it joined the US-led coalition following the 2001 war in Afghanistan.

An injured student is taken to hospital - Photo: EPA

According to Tuoi Tre