Lahore terror attack on academy dents police spirits

Lahore: The Grand Trunk Road from the Wagah Border leads directly to the Manawan Police Academy near Lahore.

It lies just outside Lahore, a big heavily wooded campus with a complex of buildings.

Early in the morning on Monday, as hundreds of police cadets were assembling at the parade ground for drill, suddenly all hell broke loose.

One of the trainees who survived a daring and ghastly terror attack said, “The terrorists jumped the wall and lobbed grenades. We couldn't see how many came. We were asked to crawl and get inside. We were 788 of us. Many were shot.”

Eyewitness reports put the figure between 15 and 20 men, wearing backpacks. Some of them wore police uniforms and all of them were heavily armed.

The terrorists stormed the parade ground from different directions. They fired automatic weapons, threw grenades. Eleven high intensity blasts were heard. Within minutes close to 400 cadets had been taken hostage and then the siege began.

Police sealed off the academy. Two armoured vehicles were brought in. One was reportedly destroyed by the terrorists who fired a high caliber weapon at it.

At this point a specially trained assault unit of the Paramilitary Rangers was deployed.

Progress was slow as the terrorists had taken up positions in several buildings. They fired from windows and took cover, immediately.

A helicopter carried out an aerial survey of the police academy, identifying the terrorists' positions and marking out rooftops where commandos could be dropped.

The staccato rattle of gunfire continued through much of the day. Two of the attackers blew themselves up while two others were killed by army snipers.

One man was taken alive and he is reportedly of Afghan origin. He was caught while trying to lob a grenade. Communication devices were recovered from him.

The crisis was over by late evening. There were over 30 bodies that were recovered and the identification process is on.

At least 90 were injured in the ghastly attack. The academy is now back in government hands but the Lahore police force is shaken and shattered like never before.