Karachi: Heavily armed gunmen Saturday
brazenly stormed a court in the southern Pakistani port city
of Karachi and freed four members of the banned Baloch group
Jundullah after opening gunfire in which at least two people
were killed.
Three attackers entered the city court complex,
lobbing grenades and firing from their automatic weapons in
which a constable was killed, Deputy Inspector General Iqbal
Mehmood told reporters.
The incident which happened at 3:15 pm local time
triggered panic in the area as shopkeepers downed the shutters
and ran for their lives.
"The men emerged from the mosque inside the city court
premises and attacked the police party who were escorting a
the four activists of the banned outfit. They resorted to
indiscriminate firing and also threw three hand grenades
causing explosions as they escaped from the court," an eye
witness said.
Later, a body of one of the suspected attackers was
found near the court complex. His hands were blown off and the
torso mutilated, witnesses said.
Initially, TV channels had said that 10 to 12 armed
men were involved in the attack but later police clarified
that the storming was carried out by three people.
After freeing the four Jundullah members who had been
brought to the complex to be produced in court, the attackers
fled to the nearby Jodia Bazar, where they exchanged fire with
police.
Officials at the Civil Hospital said they had received
four wounded persons. Doctors described the condition of two
of them as critical.
Police surrounded Jodia Bazar, a congested market with
numerous narrow lanes, and launched a search for the
attackers.
The four Jundullah members Murtaza, Shakeeb Farooqi,
Wazeer Muhammad and Murad Shah were arrested on suspicion of
involvement in bomb attacks on Shia processions in Karachi in
December last year.
Jundullah is claimed to be a group active in parts of
Baloch dominated areas of Iran, bordering Pakistan.
Karachi has been by and large spared of the violence
by Taliban militants that have rocked other Pakistani cities
over the past few years.
PTI
