ISLAMABAD: Two Rangers personnel were killed after gunmen attacked an office of Pakistan’s paramilitary Rangers in the southern port city of Karachi on Saturday, officials of a rescue service said, after attackers rammed a vehicle into the facility’s outer barricade before storming the building.
Sources at the Chhipa Welfare Association, one of the city’s largest ambulance services, said three Rangers personnel were also wounded and one attacker killed, though authorities have yet to officially confirm the casualties.
Earlier, a senior police official said three or four attackers carried out the assault, while videos circulating on social media showed heavy police presence in Karachi’s Gulistan-e-Jauhar neighborhood as gunfire continued.
“Terrorists hit their vehicle into the outer barricade of a Rangers office, then hurled hand grenades,” the police official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Arab News over the phone. “Three or four attackers then stormed the building amid gunfire.”
Sindh Police’s Special Security Unit also said it had deployed its SWAT team in response to the attack on the “Rangers facility.”
Chhipa officials said they had “evacuated the casualties from the attack site”.
“Two Rangers personnel have been martyred, three Rangers personnel have been injured and one terrorist has been killed,” they said, asking not to be identified. “The martyred and injured Rangers personnel are being shifted to hospital in our ambulances.”
Earlier, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah directed the provincial police chief and Karachi’s additional inspector general of police to submit a detailed report on the incident.
Pakistan’s Geo TV reported that gunfire was continuing in the area, while additional police contingents had been deployed and the neighborhood had also been cordoned off.
Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and commercial hub, has witnessed a number of militant attacks over the years, including assaults targeting security forces, government installations and Chinese interests.
Militant groups such as the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and the separatist Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) have previously claimed attacks in the city.
Authorities have yet to identify those behind Saturday’s assault, and no group had immediately claimed responsibility.
