19-hour siege of GHQ block ends
Monday, October 12, 2009
Commandos rescue hostages in pre-dawn attack; four terrorists killed, one captured alive; two SSG personnel, three hostages die in rescue operation
By Shakeel Anjum
RAWALPINDI: Army commandos stormed the besieged security building of the General Headquarters (GHQ) in the wee hours of Sunday and rescued 44 men taken hostage by five terrorists on Saturday.
Four militants were killed in the process and a top terrorist was arrested in a critically injured condition. Two commandos and three hostages were also killed during the rescue operation. Some 42 military and civilian employees of a section of the GHQ, who were taken hostage at about 11:40 am on Saturday, were freed at 6:03 am on Sunday, but the search and clearance operation continued till 9:30 am, security sources said.
Earlier, nine captives, including two officers, managed to escape from the besieged building under cover of darkness and joined the troops, who were planning to storm the building and provided useful information about the exact location of the terrorists, the sources said.
Explosions and gunshots were heard just before dawn on Sunday, as the commandos stormed the building, while a helicopter hovered over the area. Three ambulances were seen coming out of the building.
The 19-hour siege was over within three minutes, as the commandos carried out a successful rescue operation with clinical precision. At 11:30 am on Saturday, the terrorists wearing military uniforms attacked a checkpoint of the GHQ, killing six Army men, including Brigadier Anwarul Haq and Lt-Col Waseem in a gun battle at the main gate. The terrorists, riding a Suzuki van, killed four troops at the check-post 1 and attacked a nearby building. Five gunmen were killed during the gun battle and two of them were captured in wounded condition. But others fled and took hostage some 42 military and civilian employees in a block housing security offices adjacent to the main GHQ building.
Talking to The News, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Maj-Gen Athar Abbas confirmed that nine captives had managed to escape from captivity and provided useful information just when the troops were preparing to storm the building.
He said the first target was the room where 22 people, including seven civilian staff members, uniformed clerical staff, NGOs, JCOs and officers were held hostage. He said the militants had connected grenades with improvised explosive device (IED), which could have caused major damage. All the rescued persons have been sent home, while five injured were admitted to a hospital.
He said the commandos completed the search operation in the security building with the arrest of the last holed-up terrorist, who, in a last-ditch effort, tried to blow up the explosives he was carrying, injuring himself as well as some security personnel in the process.
Three hostages, two commandos and four terrorists were killed in the pre-dawn rescue operation, he confirmed, adding: One wounded gunman was captured. The operation is over and there is no terrorist left there.
Maj-Gen Athar Abbas said the commandos launched the rescue operation under cover of darkness, with a blast and gunfire erupting at 6 am. He said a terrorist wearing a suicide jacket had held 22 men hostage, but the commandos acted promptly and gunned him down before he could blow himself up and the hostages were rescued unharmed.
But three hostages fall prey to the terrorists firing, while four terrorists were killed during the operation. The commandos were tasked to eliminate the suicide bomber, which was successfully done, but in the process, three hostages were martyred by the terrorists fire, the DG ISPR said.
The rescue operation beginning this morning on the whole rescued 39 hostages in the first phase and at the end of the operation, five more hostages were rescued, while three hostages and two Pak Army commandos were martyred, he said.
In all, 19 people, including six soldiers, two commandos, eight terrorists and three captives, died, while several others were wounded. During the rescue operation in another room, some personnel were wounded, as wanted terrorist Aqeel alias Dr Usman tried to blow himself up. But the commandos overpowered him. Aqeel is an ex-Army man and worked as a medical assistant, the Rawalpindi police sources said. He is a resident of Model Town, located at the Kahuta Road.
Aqeel, the linchpin of the terrorist network, was also involved in attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore as well as the assassination of Surgeon General of the Pakistan Army Hafiz Mirza Muhammad Mushtaq Baig, the principal of the Army Medical College, Rawalpindi. He retired in the late 80s and later joined the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, the people investigating the case said, adding that he was linked to the Taliban based in southern Punjab.
An intelligence agency source said the terrorists had planted explosives at four places, but the commandos stormed the building and accomplished their mission so quickly that the terrorists could not get a chance to blow up the building.
A hostage, on condition of anonymity, told this correspondent that about 55 employees, including military men and civilians, were inside the building. He said they were busy with their routine work when some gunmen stormed the room. He said the militants shouted: We are on a suicide mission and we will blow you too if you try to resist. He said the employees were detained probably in three different places, but they were unaware of the situation in other rooms.
We were scared but hopeful and knew that the commandos were quite capable of tackling such situation, he said. A group of commandos stormed our room and gunned down the militants in a trice and controlled the situation, he added. He said he was unaware of how the hostages in other rooms were rescued.
Online adds: Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani visited the GHQ on Sunday morning and expressed sympathy with relatives of late Brigadier Anwarul Haq. Military sources said that during the visit, the Army chief went to his office and also inspected the site of the operation.
Corps Commander, Rawalpindi, Tahir Mehmood and the chief of the general staff of the GHQ briefed the Army chief on the operation.The COAS congratulated the Special Services Group for carrying out the successful operation and lauded its professional capabilities.
19-hour siege of GHQ block ends
