LAHORE – The death toll from Pakistan's deadliest bandit attack on police rose to 12 after one of the wounded officers died in a hospital, as police pursued suspects in the eastern province of Punjab, officials said Friday.
Thursday’s attack with guns and rocket-propelled grenades also wounded eight officers. It took place in the Kacha area in Rahim Yar Khan district, which is known for hideouts along the Indus River where hundreds of heavily armed bandits evade police.
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Punjab police chief Usman Anwar said police killed a bandit leader named Bashir Shar believed to have been behind the attack and wounded five others as they pursued the gang. In a statement, Anwar said operations against the bandits will continue until all are eliminated in the province.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, Anwar and other officials attended the funerals of slain officers on Friday.
The Interior Ministry said Naqvi told the injured officers at a hospital that those who attacked them will have a terrible end.
Bandits often rob people traveling on highways in Punjab and elsewhere in the country. Some areas in Punjab are so dangerous that people avoid traveling after sunset to avoid getting robbed, though police have cleared most “no-go areas.” Bandits also kidnap people for ransom in various parts of Pakistan.
Abdullah Khan, a senior defense analyst and managing director of the Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, said the bandits are armed with guns, rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades and pistols.
“These weapons were smuggled to Pakistan from Afghanistan in recent years, and are available to the robbers too,” he said.
Police said the bandits ambushed a vehicle carrying officers when it broke down while passing through flooded farm fields. Pakistan has been lashed by monsoon rains since July. They said the bandits took advantage of darkness to conduct the attack.
The attack was denounced by President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, who described the slain officers as martyrs.
Pakistan has witnessed a surge in violence, mostly blamed on militants, in recent years, but the death of so many police officers in one attack in unprecedented.
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Associated Press writer Asim Tanveer in Multan, Pakistan, contributed to this report.