Pakistan: Security forces thwart attack on Karachi Stock Exchange, seven dead

RFE/RL
Mon, 29 Jun 2020 06:13 UTC

© AFP/Asif Hassan

Pakistan Stock Exchange incident, Karachi, Pakistan

Four militants have been killed in an attack on Pakistan's stock-exchange building in the southern port city of Karachi. Two security guards and a police officer were also killed in the June 29 attack in the heart of the city's financial center, according to police.

"All four [attackers] are dead. Our casualties include one police officer dead and three others are injured," Sharjeel Kharl, deputy inspector-general for the police in Karachi's Southern Zone, told reporters. "Two [private] security guards have also been killed."

Police said that armed attackers pulled their vehicle up to the building and hurled a grenade before storming the entrance and firing indiscriminately. The gunmen managed to enter the grounds of the high-walled stock exchange, but the attack was thwarted by special forces troops who surrounded the building.

Security forces and the militants exchanged fire for about 20 minutes during the attack, which began at about 10 a.m., according to local media.

One officer on the scene told AP that food supplies were found on the bodies of the gunmen, indicating that they had planned on a long siege.

All employees of the exchange were reportedly safe.

Pakistan's separatist Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) later claimed responsibility for the attack, although the claim was not confirmed by Pakistani authorities.

The group, which was designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department in July 2019, also circulated a photograph of four men in body armor and camouflage, claiming that they were the militants who carried out the attack. The group demands independence for Pakistan's gas-rich southwestern Balochistan Province, which borders Sindh Province, of which Karachi is the capital.

In declaring the organization a terrorist group, the U.S. State Department described the BLA as "an armed separatist group that usually targets security forces and civilians, mainly in ethnic Baloch areas" of southwestern Pakistan.

The Karachi stock exchange is located in city's financial district, along with the Pakistan State Bank and several national and international financial institutions.

The Karachi exchange is Pakistan's largest and oldest stock exchange and is incorporated with exchanges in Islamabad and Lahore.

Comment: As countries and cultures continue to disintegrate, the opportunities for terrorism increase. There is always a political agenda motivating these attacks.

The attack occurred at around 10am local time. Four gunmen dressed as off-duty police officers drove to a parking lot in front of the stock exchange building in a single vehicle and threw a grenade at the main entrance gate, police said. The terrorists then opened fire indiscriminately, forcing people to flee in panic.

Around 150 employees were at the building during the assault, the stock exchange director told the media. They locked themselves inside their offices.

Police and security personnel were quickly dispatched to the scene, and a fierce firefight ensued in which all of the terrorists were shot dead. Police seized AK-47 rifles, hand grenades, and other explosives.

See also:
'No doubt' India was behind attack on Karachi Stock Exchange, claims Pakistan's PM Khan