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Gunmen Storm Pakistani Hospital, Killing at Least 6

01 June 2010 23:12 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Four gunmen disguised as police officers stormed a hospital in Lahore, Pakistan, early today in what police said was an attempt either to rescue or kill a militant being treated there after an attack Friday on two mosques in the city, APA reports quoting aolnews.com website.

At least six people were killed after what the hospital’s executive director, Javed Akram, told reporters was "indiscriminate firing outside the emergency ward and intensive-care unit."

The gunmen fled after briefly seizing hostages, leaving three policemen and a woman dead, Lahore’s police chief Shafique Gujjar told The New York Times. Akram, who had initially put the death toll at 12, said two critically injured people later died and six people were wounded.

Gujjar said the gunmen raided the Jinnah Hospital to free a militant who was in intensive care after a raid on two mosques killed more than 80 members of the minority Ahmadi sect at Friday prayers.

But Punjab province’s police chief, Tariq Saleem Dogar, told Reuters that the gunmen could also have been trying to kill the hospitalized militant, in what local television commentators said was an attempt to stop him from disclosing information about the mosque attacks.

The Pakistani Taliban have claimed responsibility for Friday’s attacks, which was condemned by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani as an "inhuman act of brutality."

A Lahore official told Reuters after today’s attack: "We are in hot pursuit. We are chasing them. One of them was wounded."

Similar remarks were made a senior police officer, who was quoted by the Times as saying, "We are in a state of war."

Lahore, home to many of Pakistan’s elite, including top military officials, has witnessed a string of attacks since March 2009 that left more than 250 people dead.

The Ahmadi sect, which was declared non-Muslim by Pakistan in 1974 for asserting that its founder, Mizra Ghulam Ahmad, was himself a prophet, has been subject to a number of attacks.

At the same time, Taliban militants have declared war on Pakistan’s government, in large part because of its alliance with the U.S. in the war in Afghanistan. This had led to major confrontations and suicide bombings in the past year.