Suicide car bombers and gunmen attacked a government complex housing offices of top intelligence agency Wednesday, sparking a shootout that killed seven people, officials said. The dead included four attackers, one intelligence agent and a government employee, in what was an unprecedented attack in the otherwise sleepy southern town of Sukkur.
Although there was no immediate claim of responsibility, it is likely to revive fears that the reach of militancy is spreading. PTV said at least 38 people were wounded in what has been one of the bloodiest attacks blamed on militants so far during Ramazan. Police said the attackers stormed the complex of offices and homes for senior officials, including those belonging to the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), as people broke their fast after sundown. They detonated two bombs -- one outside a police building and a car bomb outside the ISI office.
A police official said apparently a suicide bomber first blew him 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. A hospital official told AFP that the bodies of an ISI agent and another 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 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. An intelligence official in Karachi told AFP that the attackers detonated a bomb near the office of a senior police official and then a car bomb at the ISI office.
"One suicide bomber detonated an explosive laden car in front of ISI office and other militants started firing on police," Masood Bangash, a senior police official in Sukkur told AFP by telephone. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has strongly condemned the attack, which he said resulted in the "loss of precious human lives and injured many".
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