New Delhi: THE suicide attack on Quetta police training college in Balochistan began at 9.30 pm on Monday night with three suicide bombers in police uniform covering their face with shawls entering the heavily fortified complex through the front gate after shooting the guards, Pakistani media reported.
The training college is situated on Sariab Road, which is considered to be one of the most sensitive areas of Quetta. The assailants fired at the centre from five different points, hinting that there could have been more attackers than the early estimates.
The operation was over in four hours with the authorities calling in Pakistan Army special forces called the Special Services Group.
"Two suicide attackers blew themselves up, which resulted in casualties, while the third one was shot dead by our troops," said Inspector General Frontier Corps (FC) Major General Sher Afgan.
According to Dawn, at least three explosions were reported at the scene by local media, with one journalist saying the explosions rocked the area. Gunfire and explosions were heard from inside the centre, as the terrorists were said to be carrying AK-47s and grenades.
Two army helicopters provided aerial surveillance of the area.
The training college has come under attack in the past in 2008 and 2006, with attackers firing rockets into the college playground. It covers about an acre of land located about 13 kilometres outside the Baloch capital.
An eyewitness speaking to reporters after making a narrow escape said he saw three terrorists directly enter the barracks. "They started firing. We saw them and started screaming. We ran upstairs towards an exit."
Quetta witnessed another horrific incident in August when a suicide bombed belonging to the Islamic State group and the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar killed 73 people at a hospital, including many of the city’s lawyer community who had gone there to mourn the fatal shooting of a colleague.
According to Dawn, Balochistan is a key region for China's ambitious $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infrastructure project linking its western province of Xinjiang to the Arabian Sea via Pakistan. Security problems have mired CPEC in the past with numerous attacks, but China has said it is confident the Pakistani military is in control.
Also read: Quetta Terror Attack: Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Suspected To Be Behind The Assault Attack
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