Five policemen, including a sub-inspector, were killed when suspected radicals attacked the Gulistan-E-Johar police station near Karachi airport on Sunday morning. One constable was injured.
Two prisoners locked in the stations's cells and an officer who had been at morning prayers survived. According to reports, nearly a dozen gunmen attacked the station with automatic weapons and hand grenade. Bullets also hit a nearby mosque, where people had gathered for morning prayers, but no injuries were reported. The gunmen--believed to from the banned Lashkar-e-Janghvi, a militant group linked to al-Qa'ida. then escaped in the vehicles they had come in, taking their injured with them.
Other reports said the police officers were forced to recite verses from the Koran before being gunned down.
Witnesses said the gunmen struck at dawn, shouting: "We will not leave any police alive." Mohammed Hussain, the policeman who was praying at a small mosque inside the premises, returned fire until he received a hand injury. According to Hussain, the gunmen shot the victims at close range. Deputy inspector general of police Tariq Jamil said that a manhunt had been launched for the killers and that one of the vehicles used by the assailants had been recovered.
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