Pakistani police station attacked

At least 12 people killed in standoff in Dera Ismail Khan district, after station was assaulted with guns and grenades.


At least 12 people have been killed after a police station in northwestern Pakistani came under attack from gunmen and suicide bombers, authorities say.
Three explosions sent plumes of smoke into the air at the Kolachi police station in the Dera Ismail Khan district during the assault, which prompted a standoff with the police, on Saturday.
Ten policemen were killed and another five wounded in the assault. Two of the gunmen, of whom police say there were more than a dozen, were also killed.
The fighters attacked the police station on Saturday afternoon with guns and grenades.
Dera Ismail Khan is located just outside of the South Waziristan tribal agency in Pakistan's restive Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
Television footage showed black-clad security guards armed with rifles taking up positions around the station after the initial raid.
"They threw grenades and opened indiscriminate firing as they stormed into the police station," local police chief Imtiaz Khan told the Reuters news agency.
Suicide attack
Javed Khan, a police commando said that at least one of the attackers was a suicide bomber who blew himself up when an armoured vehicle tried to enter the police compound after the initial raid.
Police officials said that around 17 policemen were on duty when the attackers hit the station.
The Pakistani Express-Tribune newspaper reported "heavy firing" as being under way on Saturday evening as security forces launched an operation to retake the building.
It quotes sources as indicating that up to 35 policemen could still be trapped inside the station, which is located in a residential area.
Mohammad Raees, a witness, told Reuters that three of the attackers approached the station on a motorbike, and that one of them was wearing a burqa, which he took off as they attacked the building.
Ahsanullah Ahsan, a spokesman for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, told the Associated Press that his group was claiming responsibility for the attack.
Ahsan said the attack was partly aimed at avenging the raid by United States Special Forces that killed Osama bin Laden, the former al-Qaeda leader, on May 2.