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ISLAMABAD (Times of India) – At least 39 people have been killed in an attack on the Parade Lane Mosque near military barracks in Pakistan’s garrison city of Rawalpindi, which neighbours the capital Islamabad, rescue services said. Gunfire and explosions were reported from the location, police said. (Watch Video)
The reported attack came as people gathered for Friday prayers. Security forces and ambulances rushed to the scene in the city, home to the headquarters of Pakistan’s powerful military.
“Our people have so far shifted 39 people to different hospitals,” Sohail Riaz, the official in charge of rescue services’ control room in the town of Rawalpindi, told Reuters.
“There were two suicide bombers and the roof of the mosque collapsed,” Pakistan’s interior minister Rehman Malik told the private ARY television channel.
Mohammad Aamir, a local police station official, said there were reports of gunfire and shelling in the mosque in the Qasim market area. An emergency service official said that grenade blasts were also heard.
“We have dispatched ambulances to the site and are setting up a communication link.”
High security and walled residential area …
The attack took place at a mosque in the Qasim Market neighborhood of Rawalpindi. Witnesses said the attackers managed to circumvent strict security measures in the area to launch the assault.
Mr. Ali, the eyewitness the television station that he saw two assailants clad in long white tunics girded with ammunition belts entering the mosque from either side and opening fire on worshippers, apparently indiscriminately.
The mosque can accommodate at least 200 people but it was not clear how many worshippers were present when the attack took place. Pakistani news reports suggested that the attackers clambered over a rear wall to gain access.
Mr. Ali’s father, identified by Dawn television as Ameer Ali, a retired army official, said the mosque was used mainly by serving army officers living nearby, and retired military personnel could only use it if they were cleared to do so by the intelligence services.
MILITARY ENGAGED IN OFFENSIVE
In October, the army headquarters in Rawalpindi was the target of a militant siege and hostage-taking which hit the heart of the nuclear-armed country’s most powerful establishment.
Pakistan’s military is engaged in offensives against Islamist militants across much of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), a region branded the most dangerous place on Earth by Washington.
FATA has been plagued by instability and militancy for years, exacerbated in 2001 when a US-led invasion ousted the Taliban regime from Afghanistan, sending hundreds of Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants into the lawless region.
VIDEO: Militants armed with guns and grenades attacked a mosque during midday prayers in Rawalpindi
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