Daredevil strike on Pak army HQ.

Continued from page 1

Afghanistan border soon after a powerful bomb explosion killed 49 people -- including nine children -- in Peshawar.

One of the terrorists was arrested after the army launched an operation to overcome the attackers. He led investigators to a rented house the attackers were living in, a military source said. " We have recovered a large number of mobile phones, maps of sensitive installations and fake military uniforms from the house," he said.

" The house is located less than 20 km to the southeast of the site of the attack." Pakistan army sources said that even though the attack began shortly before noon, the counterattack to eliminate the militants was taking long as the army " wanted to ensure safety of the hostages." The attack showed that despite the death of the Pakistan Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud in a US drone attack in August, the militants retained the ability to strike at the very heart of Pakistan's security apparatus. The whereabouts of Pakistan military chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani was not known, but military sources said he was safe and that he had attended meetings at the headquarters and at the President's office in Islamabad Eyewitnesses said the attackers were travelling in a white Suzuki van and they were wearing military uniforms. They opened fire and started hurling hand grenades as soon as they were stopped by the soldiers manning a security checkpoint on the road that turns from The Mall -- one of the main roads in Rawalpindi -- towards the main gate of the military headquarters.

After killing and injuring all the soldiers at the checkpost, the attackers moved to the next security cordon where soldiers were already alert and firing at the invaders, a senior security official involved in the investigation said. Four of the attackers died in the firing, but some managed to flee.

The army's security system sprung into action soon, and soldiers were searching through the roads and streets around the headquarters and army helicopters hovering in the air. " We have arrested one of the fleeing terrorists and we have surrounded the remaining ones. We are asking them to free the hostages and surrender unconditionally," an officer in the office of the military spokesman said.

Military spokesperson Major General Athar Abbas confirmed that five soldiers were also wounded in the attack. Eyewitnesses said the exchange of firing between the attackers and the soldiers continued for quite some time and sporadic shots were heard even hours after the attack started.

In less than an hour after the attack began, a man claiming to represent the Tehrik- e- Taliban Pakistan called a private television channel and claimed responsibility for the attack. " There was fierce firing, and then there was a blast," said Khan Bahadur, a shuttle van driver standing outside the gate of the compound. " Soldiers were running here and there," he said.

" The firing continued for about a half- anhour.

There was smoke everywhere. Then there was a break, and then firing again." After a 45- minute gunfight, four of the attackers were killed, said Abbas. He initially told Geo news television channel " the assault was over and the situation is under full control." But more than an hour later, gunshots rang out from the headquarters compound, and Abbas then confirmed that other gunmen had eluded security forces and slipped into the compound. The city is filled with security checkpoints and police roadblocks.

" We are trying to finish it ( the siege) at the earliest, clear the area of terrorists and restore complete control," Abbas said.

Pakistani media said the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Interior minister Rehman Malik said the ongoing assaults strengthened the government's resolve to launch the offensive.

" We have been left no other option except to go ahead to face them," he told Dawn television.

This attack, although the first one on the army headquarters, is only part of a regular pattern seen in Pakistan for some years now. Militants regularly attack army bases across the country; they recently bombed a checkpoint the outside army compound in Rawalpindi two years ago -- one of several major bombings to hit the garrison city in recent years.

Analysts said the attack is aimed at giving a strong message to the military that the Taliban are still strong enough to hit extremely sensitive and high- profile targets despite the recent reverses they have suffered in Swat and Waziristan.

" It is a symbolic attack," said Masood Sharif, a former head of military intelligence.

" It is a warning shot to warn the military that the Taliban can hit back if the military keeps on going after them." The attack on the military headquarters is third incident of terrorism in less than a week. A couple of days before the Peshawar attack, a lone suicide bomber walked into the heavily fortified offices of the World Food Program in a residential area in the capital Islamabad killing four people, including a foreigner.

Official estimates put the death toll caused by the Tehrik- e- Taliban Pakistan ( TTP) attacks at 2,200 over the last two years. Taliban and al- Qaeda rebels who fled Afghanistan after the 2001 US- led invasion after the 9/ 11 attack on New York, have carved out bolt holes and training camps in the remote Pakistani mountains, with the TTP leadership also holed up in the rugged terrain.

SHIFT IN AMERICA'S PAKISTAN POLICY SEE PAGE 6

Copyright 2009 India Today Group. All Rights Reserved.

Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company