Pakistan group claims police attack, makes demands

Lahore: The militant group that claimed responsibility for the assault on a police academy said Tuesday it will carry out more attacks unless Pakistani troops withdraw from tribal areas near the Afghan border and the US stops drone attacks against militants in the country.

Omar Farooq, who said he is the spokesman for little-known Fedayeen al-Islam, also said the group carried out a similar ambush-style attack against the Sri Lankan cricket team earlier this month in Lahore - the same eastern city where a group of gunmen stormed a police academy Monday and killed at least six trainee officers before being overpowered by Pakistani commandos.

The group previously said it was behind the deadly September bombing of the Marriott hotel in Islamabad that killed 54 people.

Such attacks pose a major test for the weak, year-old civilian administration of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari that has been gripped with political turmoil in recent weeks.

Some of the gunmen who attacked the academy Monday wore police uniforms, and the group managed to hold off security forces for about eight hours, seizing hostages and throwing grenades.

Four suspected militants were arrested, while at least three blew themselves up during the battle, said Rao Iftikhar, a top government official in Punjab province. He said three other bodies were still unidentified, two of them wearing police uniforms.
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Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik said one of the arrested men was an Afghan, and that investigators believe the attack may have its roots along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, where Taliban militants have hideouts.

But Malik also pointed fingers at a Punjab-based Sunni extremist group and refused to rule out an Indian role.