KARACHI, Pakistan, Feb 17 (Portal) – Islamists stormed a police station in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi on Friday, killing at least two people in a hail of gunfire and a series of loud explosions.
Police snipers took up positions near the station and all the lights in the area were turned off.
Security forces cleared three of the building’s five floors and the roof, said Murtaza Wahab, a spokesman for the Sindh provincial government.
The Karachi police surgeon told Portal that two people had been killed and six injured.
A massive explosion was heard in the station after a series of explosions when it was first attacked.
The Pakistani Taliban, or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attack in a message from their spokesman to journalists.
“I can’t say exactly how many terrorists got in, but it’s at least more than five,” Deputy Inspector General Irfan Baloch told Portal.
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The station houses offices of the city’s highest police force. Baloch said there could have been as many as 30 police officers at the station at the time of the attack.
The Islamist TTP, separate from the Taliban who rule neighboring Afghanistan, has recently stepped up attacks on police in north-west Pakistan as part of its anti-government campaign in Islamabad.
Overseas cricketers compete in the Pakistan Super League and Karachi is one of the host cities. A game is scheduled for Saturday. The police station is on the way to the stadium and the player’s hotel is a few kilometers away.
Top teams avoided Pakistan for years after a 2009 attack on a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore killed six police officers and two civilians.
Police blocked traffic on the main thoroughfare through Karachi and heavy contingents of security forces, including paramilitary soldiers, had arrived at the scene.
The media reported eight to ten attackers.
Reporting by Ariba Shahid in Karachi and Gibran Peshimam in Islamabad; Adaptation by Toby Chopra and Nick Macfie
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