Islamist militants dressed as women kill 4, including 3 policemen, in Pakistan

Islamist militants dressed as women in burkas stormed a northwestern Pakistani district police office on Monday, killing three policemen and a civilian before police shot and killed all five attackers.

Provincial police chief Akhtar Hayat said the attack on the complex, which houses both the district police headquarters and a residential complex, lasted for hours before the potential suicide bombers were killed.

Officers had gathered for the funeral of a colleague killed a day earlier in a militant attack when the raid began.

“Four of the militants were wearing suicide vests, but they were neutralised before they could detonate them. The police [base] has been fully cleared,” said senior police official in the district Imran Shahid.

He said four police officers were killed and five militants.

“The five militants, disguised as women wearing burkas, reached the gate of the police [base] before launching their attack,” provincial minister Pakhtoon Yar Khan, who is from the district, told Agence France-Presse.