The US has strongly condemned the Taliban terrorist attack on the Karachi police office which left four people dead. The US condemnation came after Karachi police spokesperson said all three terrorists who attacked the KPO had been killed in the operation on Friday night. The police spokesman said that this was a “major operation” in which senior police officials had participated alongside the Army and the Rangers.

Taking to Twitter Saturday morning, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said “We stand firmly with the Pakistani people in the face of this terrorist attack. Violence is not the answer, and it must stop. My deepest condolences to the families of those injured and killed.” At least four people were killed when a Pakistan Taliban suicide squad stormed the police compound in Karachi, with a gun battle raging for hours as security forces went floor-to-floor through an office building in pursuit of the assailants. The attack comes just weeks after a bomb blast at a police mosque in the Peshawar killed more than 80 officers, and officials said late Friday that security would be stepped up in Islamabad.

The Pakistan Taliban said its fighters had stormed the tightly guarded Karachi Police Office compound, home to dozens of administrative and residential buildings as well as hundreds of officers and their families. "Four people were killed in the attack, including two policemen, one ranger and one sanitary worker," Sindh government spokesman Murtaza Wahab Siddiqui told reporters, adding 14 others were wounded.

"The operation has concluded with the killing of all three terrorists," he said. A spokesman for Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility in a WhatsApp message to a foreign news agency. "Our Mujahideen martyrs have attacked Karachi Police Office. More details to follow," he said. Speaking on a TV channel, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah called the attackers "terrorists... armed with grenades and other weapons" and said they fired at a gate with a rocket. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed Friday to stamp out the violence. "Pakistan will not only uproot terrorism, but will kill the terrorists by bringing them to justice," he tweeted. "This great nation is determined to end this evil forever."

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-INP