Funerals were held on Saturday for civilians, officers and servicemen of Pakistan’s army killed in a devastating militant attack on a mosque in Rawalpindi that left 40 people dead.
Nine officers including a major general, a brigadier, two lieutenant colonels and two majors were killed in Friday’s attack, in which assailants unleashed gunfire, grenades and suicide blasts inside a mosque during prayers.
The “highly tragic incident” left 17 children and 10 other civilians dead among the overall toll, a military statement said.
PHOTO: EPA
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, army chief General Ashfaq Kayani and other top military officials attended the funerals of Major General Umer Bilal and two civilians, including the son of a top military commander.
Rawalpindi is home to the Pakistani military’s headquarters and is a frequent target of Taliban insurgents, who have staged a wave of attacks in recent months to avenge military offensives against them across the northwest.
A smartly turned-out army contingent provided an honor guard as the coffin of the major general arrived for funeral prayers held on the lawns of a heavily guarded military building, a reporter said.
Army soldiers stood guard on the lawns and on a nearby rooftop during the funeral prayers.
“Bodies of other army officials who embraced martyrdom in yesterday’s attack have been taken to their respective native towns for the last rites,” a military official said, requesting anonymity.
A top army commander, Lieutenant General Masood Aslam, who lost his son in the attack, stood composed as officials commiserated with him over his son’s death after the prayers.
Aslam supervises military operations in the restive northwest and tribal regions at the center of recent military offensives.
“It is God’s will,” he said after the prayers.
The head of the army, General Kayani, also met family members of some of the deceased officers.
“The nation, including the army, stands united in sharing their grief,” a military statement quoted him as saying. “Pakistan is our motherland. It is the bastion of Islam and we live for the glory of Islam and Pakistan.”
“Our faith, resolve and pride in our religion and in our country is an asset, which is further reinforced after each terrorist incident,” Kayani said, reiterating the army’s commitment to “defend and protect Pakistan at all costs.”
Pakistan is in the grip of a fierce Islamist insurgency, with more than 2,600 people killed in attacks in the last two-and-a-half years. Taliban fighters frequently target security forces and military installations.
Meanwhile, police commandos acting on a tip killed one militant and arrested five others yesterday in a raid against a bombing cell accused in recent attacks around the northwestern city of Peshawar.
Police said they encountered fierce resistance when they stormed the compound in the village of Kaka Khel near Peshawar, the largest city in the northwest and the main gateway to the Afghan border region where many al-Qaeda and Taliban are based.
Three suicide jackets as well as a number of bombs, grenades, rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons were seized from the compound, regional police Chief Liaquat Ali Khan said.
He said one suspect was killed and five others arrested following a gunbattle that lasted more than two hours.
A search operation for more militants continued in the area, 50km east of Peshawar.
The militants were suspected of involvement in recent bombings and other attacks not only in Peshawar but in Islamabad and its sister city of Rawalpindi, Khan said, declining to be more specific.
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