Gunmen attack hospital in Pakistan in attempt to free militant, kill 8 people

Gunmen attack hospital in Pakistan, kill 8 people

LAHORE, Pakistan — At least two gunmen disguised in police uniforms attacked a hospital in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore late Monday, killing eight people in a failed attempt to free a captured militant being treated there, officials said.

The gunmen managed to escape but left without securing the release of the militant, who was part of a group of gunmen who attacked a minority sect in Lahore on Friday and killed 93 people, said Rana Sanaullah, the law minister of Punjab province, where Lahore is the capital.

The gunmen stormed Jinnah Hospital in a hail of gunfire shortly before midnight Monday and briefly took several patients hostage, Sanaullah said. One of the gunmen climbed up on the roof to shoot at police who surrounded the building, he said.

Five of the eight people killed in the attack were policemen, Sanaullah said.

Lahore has experienced a string of deadly attacks in the past year by militants who have declared war on both the government and minority groups in the country.

Friday’s attacks against two mosques in Lahore targeted the Ahmadi sect, a minority reviled as heretics by mainstream Muslims. Seven gunmen attacked the mosques with assault rifles, grenades and suicide vests. At least two of the attackers were captured, while some died in the standoff or by detonating their explosives.

Police have said the men who attacked the mosques in Lahore were part of the Pakistani Taliban and trained in the North Waziristan tribal region. Authorities have arrested at least seven other men allegedly linked to the attacks who were members of a variety of banned militant groups.