AP pix of attack on police academy, siege

(30 Mar 2009)
1. Wide top shot of ambulance and TV satellite trucks at scene
2. Soldier crouches behind wall
3. Close of soldier lying on roof
4. Wide of soldiers lying on roof
5. Soldiers approaching police academy
6. Pull out of Manawan Police Training School where attack took place, sign reading: (Urdu) "Police Training School"
7. Tracking shot of army rangers on vehicle driving along busy street
8. Wide of police behind academy wall, AUDIO: gunfire
9. Policeman running across road towards academy
10. Police commandos standing in front of academy, military vehicle driving
11. Wide of policemen running
12. SOUNDBITE: (Urdu) Muhammad Imran, policeman:
++AUDIO QUALITY AS INCOMING++
"We were in the parade ground, many people entered the ground and they started firing at us then they ran behind the walls. We hid in our office and there were forty or fifty of us together. I don't know what has happened to them now."
13. Building where gunmen were believed to be holed up
14. Injured policeman being taken away in ambulance
15. Various of rangers and local police around building
16. Lahore police chief Haji Habibur Rehman (first left) talking to police rangers
17. Wide of onlookers
18. Helicopter above
STORYLINE:
A government official said Pakistani security forces have overpowered militants who attacked a police academy on Monday, arresting six.
Rao Iftikhar said eight of the gunmen died, including two who blew themselves up.
Reports on the death tolls from the assault have varied wildly, with officials confirming at least 11 to The Associated Press.
Other reports said up to 40 people had died.
Iftikhar said he would provide a more exact death toll from the brazen assault later on Monday.
The well-organised, highly coordinated assault came less than a month after an ambush on Sri Lanka's visiting cricket team in the heart of Lahore, underscoring the threat that militancy poses to the US-allied, nuclear-armed country.
It prompted the country's top civilian security official to say that militant groups were "destabilising the country."
Soldiers and other security forces surrounded the compound on the outskirts of the city, exchanging fire in televised scenes reminiscent of last November's militant siege of the Indian city of Mumbai.
Armoured vehicles entered the compound while helicopters hovered overhead. Some police tried to escape by crawling on their hands and knees around the bodies of fallen officers.
Six hours after the initial assault, police captured one of the suspected gunmen, dragging him to a field outside the academy and kicking him.
Soon afterward, four loud explosions rocked the scene.
Pakistan has endured scores of suicide bombings and other attacks in recent years, and it faces tremendous US pressure to eradicate al-Qaida and Taliban insurgents on its soil.
Most of the violence occurs along the country's northwest border with Afghanistan, but attacks have occurred in all the major cities, including in eastern Punjab province, of which Lahore is capital.
Monday's attack occurred close to the Indian border. No group immediately claimed responsibility.

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