 | « Back to article | Print this article |
A group of militants disguised as policemen stormed a hospital in Lahore late on Monday night, in an apparent bid to free a terrorist captured in an injured condition during the twin mosque attack last week, killing at least four persons and injuring five others.
Four militants clad in police uniforms entered the Jinnah Hospital shortly before midnight and fired indiscriminately, Punjab police chief Tariq Salim Dogar told reporters. Three policemen and a woman were killed in the attack, police officials said. Seven persons, including three policemen, were injured in the attack that triggered panic among hundreds of patients at the hospital.
"Four terrorists in police uniform came to the hospital to kill or free the injured terrorist," police chief Dogar said.
The attack was repulsed following an exchange of fire and at least one of the attackers was injured, he said. The attackers fled from the hospital in a police van.
The police cordoned off the area and laid road blocks in different parts of Lahore in a bid to capture the terrorists. A senior police official told PTI that the attackers entered the hospital from the rooftop.
They then made their way to the intensive care unit on the first floor where the injured terrorist, Moaz alias Amir Muavia, was being treated. After shooting at some policemen deployed on the first floor, they tried to storm the Intensive Care Unit, said the senior official. However, the policemen retaliated and forced the attackers to flee. Moaz was shifted from the hospital to a 'safe' location, he said.
Earlier, Javed Akram, the chief executive of Jinnah Hospital, had mistakenly put the death toll at 12.
Moaz was captured when he attacked a mosque of the minority Ahmedi sect in the Model Town area of Lahore on Friday.
At least 95 people were killed and over 100 injured when two groups of terrorists attacked two Ahmedi mosques last week. Some injured members of the Ahmedi sect are also being treated at the Jinnah Hospital.
Image: Rescue workers move the body of a victim who was killed when gunmen attacked Jinnah Hospital in Lahore | Photograph: Mani Rana/Reuters