Pakistan must once again face the deadly violence of an attack. At least four people were thus killed in an attack carried out Friday evening February 17 by a Pakistani Taliban suicide squad against a major police complex in Karachi, the largest city in the country, and its economic and financial capital.
Three armed men with explosive vests attacked around 7:30 p.m. local time (3:30 p.m. Paris time) a complex made up of several official police buildings and residences housing hundreds of police officers and their families.
For more than three hours, violent exchanges of gunfire and explosions of grenades were heard, before the security forces managed to regain control of the building. The attack had begun when the assailants fired “a rocket on the portal” entrance to the complex, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah told Samaa TV.
“Four people were killed in the attack, including two police officers, a ranger [paramilitaire] and a maintenance workerfor his part informed Agence France-Presse (AFP) Murtaza Wahab Siddiqui, the spokesperson for the government of the province of Sindh, of which Karachi is the capital. “Preliminary findings suggest that three terrorists were involved in the attack” and “the operation ended with the deaths of the three terrorists”he added.
“Acts of cowardice”
The Pakistani Taliban’s Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the assault. “Mujahideen attacked Karachi police office”said a spokesperson for the TTP, without further details, in a WhatsApp message sent to AFP.
“Once again, terrorists have attacked Karachi. Such acts of cowardice cannot break the will and determination of the police and law enforcement agencies. The whole nation stands with the police and security organs”, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a statement. Karachi in the south is a megacity of 20 million people and the country’s main commercial gateway with its port overlooking the Arabian Sea.
United States “strongly condemn the terrorist attack”reacted the spokesman of the State Department, Ned Price. “We stand firmly with the people of Pakistan in the face of this terrorist attack”, he wrote in a tweetadding: “Violence is not the answer and it must end”.
Deterioration of security
Pakistan has been facing deteriorating security for some months, especially since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan in August 2021.
The Karachi attack came a few weeks after a suicide bombing on January 30 against a mosque located in the police headquarters of Peshawar (north-west), in which 83 police officers and a civilian were killed.
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After several years of relative calm, the attacks have resumed with renewed vigor, led mainly by the TTP and by EI-K, the regional branch of the jihadist group Islamic State (IS). In the year since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, attacks have increased by 50% in Pakistan, according to the Pakistani institute PIPS.
The TTP is a movement distinct from that of the new Afghan leaders but which shares common roots with them. In November, the group denounced a fragile ceasefire with Islamabad and promised to carry out attacks throughout Pakistan. Since then, he has multiplied attacks targeting the security forces.
Freedom to maneuver regained
The authorities had attributed the Peshawar attack to Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a more radical faction, sometimes affiliated sometimes dissident, of the TTP, which itself dissociated itself from this attack. The country had been placed on high alert after this attack, with additional security forces deployed and checkpoints multiplied.
During the twenty years of American occupation in Afghanistan, after the fall of the previous Taliban regime in 2001, the armed groups at work along the border between the two countries had to hide from the eyes of drones. But analysts believe they have regained their freedom of maneuver with the return of the Taliban to power. Pakistan accuses them of letting these groups use Afghan soil to plan their attacks, which Kabul denies.
Karachi has already experienced several major attacks in recent years, mainly claimed by Baloch separatist groups.