In a rare assault on the Pakistani capital, between four and six gunmen stormed the building in the city centre just before 9am yesterday, opening fire on court workers and visitors and lobbing grenades into lawyers’ chambers and judges’ offices before two of the attackers detonated suicide bombs inside the central court building.
The remaining gunmen are believed to have escaped in a white Toyota Prado as police surrounded the site and panicked crowds fled the building, dodging bullets, broken glass and human remains as they went.
No arrests had been made as of early evening yesterday, and police said it was too early to speculate on the identity or motives of the attackers, though some reports suggested the gunmen were trying to free a defendant due to appear before the court.
The deadly strike happened less than a day after the government announced it was halting airstrikes on suspected Taliban safe havens in the country’s remote northwest to try and kick-start faltering peace talks with Taliban intermediaries.
Talks initiated last month between government and Taliban delegates had earlier broken down after a series of attacks and retaliatory attacks by insurgents and military forces.
The Taliban were quick to deny responsibility for yesterday’s attack, which capped another weekend of violence in which 13 security force personnel defending polio vaccinators were killed in the northwest Khyber Agency Saturday and another two soldiers were killed in a targeted bombing in the same district on Sunday morning.
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Shahidullah Shahid condemned the attack on the Islamabad court, and said his group would not violate its own self-imposed ceasefire.
But the latest strike only emphasises the schismatic nature of the Taliban militancy, and the central command structure’s inability to control an increasingly unruly network of affiliates.
Though the court complex has in the past hosted several anti-terrorism court hearings, The Australian understands there were no terrorism-related cases scheduled to be heard yesterday.
Most of the injured were taken to the Institute of Medical Science Hospital, where a spokesman told media that five of the injured were in critical condition.
Islamabad Police inspector general Sikander Hayat said; “The attackers first lobbed grenades at the policemen on duty. Then they started shooting, and when law enforcement officials tried to counter, they blew themselves up.”
Local reports cited eyewitnesses to the attack describing the gunmen as having the long hair favoured by Taliban terrorists.
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