Gunmen kill 40 in Pakistan attacks

12 April 2012

Suspected Taliban gunmen have launched a wave of attacks in the Pakistani city of Lahore aimed at crippling a planned new offensive against them in their home territory.

About 40 people were killed in the raids and a separate suicide bombing on the other side of the country.

The Taliban have warned Pakistan to stop pursuing them in military operations but the Pakistani army is preparing for a new offensive in the South Waziristan tribal region.

In Lahore, terrorist teams attacked three security sites including a commando training centre where fighting continued for hours before security forces killed five attackers and freed a family they were holding hostage.

Later, a bomb has exploded near a school in the northwestern city of Peshawar, injuring five people, police have said.

Peshawar police chief Ijaz Khan said the car bomb went off outside a home near a school in the Gulshan Rehman area. The school was closed at the time.

The assaults paralysed Pakistan's cultural capital, showing the militants are highly organised and able to carry out sophisticated strikes against heavily fortified facilities despite stepped up security across the country.

No group immediately claimed responsibility, although suspicion fell on the Taliban which has claimed other recent strikes. The attacks also were the latest to underscore the growing threat to Punjab, the province next to India where the Taliban are believed to have made inroads and linked up with local insurgents.

President Asif Ali Zardari said the bloodshed that has engulfed the nation over the past 11 days would not deter the government from its mission to eliminate the violent extremists.

"The enemy has started a guerrilla war," Interior Minister Rehman Malik said. "The whole nation should be united against these handful of terrorists, and God willing we will defeat them."

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