Pakistani authorities have blamed another militant group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), for the late-night siege, though the Islamic State claim included photographs of three alleged attackers.

Hundreds of trainees were stationed at the facility when masked gunmen stormed the college on the outskirts of Quetta late on Monday. Some cadets were taken hostage during the raid, which lasted nearly five hours. Most of the dead were cadets.

"Militants came directly into our barrack. They just barged in and started firing point-blank. We started screaming and running around in the barrack," one police cadet who survived told media.

Other cadets spoke of jumping out of windows and cowering under beds as masked gunmen hunted them down. Video footage from inside one of the barracks showed blackened walls and rows of charred beds.

Islamic State's Amaq news agency published the claim of responsibility, saying three IS fighters "used machine guns and grenades, then blew up their explosive vests in the crowd".

Mir Sarfaraz Bugti, home minister of the province of Baluchistan, whose capital is Quetta, said the gunmen attacked a dormitory in the training facility, while cadets rested and slept.

"Two attackers blew up themselves, while a third one was shot in the head by security men," Bugti said. Earlier, officials had said there were five to six gunmen.

A Reuters photographer at the scene said authorities carried out the body of a teenaged boy who they said was one of the attackers and had been shot dead by security forces.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Army chief General Raheel Sharif both traveled to Quetta after the attack and participated in a special security meeting on Tuesday afternoon, the prime minister's office said.

One of the top military commanders in Baluchistan, General Sher Afgun, told media that calls intercepted between the attackers and their handlers suggested they were from the sectarian Sunni militant group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ).

"We came to know from the communication intercepts that there were three militants who were getting instructions from Afghanistan," Afgun told media, adding that the Al Alami faction of LeJ was behind the attack.

LeJ, whose roots are in the heartland Punjab province, has a history of carrying out sectarian attacks in Baluchistan, particularly against the minority Hazara Shias. Pakistan has previously accused LeJ of colluding with al Qaeda.

Authorities launched a crackdown against LeJ last year, particularly in Punjab province. In a major blow to the organization, Malik Ishaq, the group's leader, was killed in July 2015 alongside 13 members of the central leadership in what police say was a failed escape attempt.

"Two, three days ago we had intelligence reports of a possible attack in Quetta city, that is why security was beefed up in Quetta, but they struck at the police training college," Sanaullah Zehri, chief minister of Baluchistan, told the Geo TV channel.

The Hakeemullah Mehsud faction of the Pakistani Taliban also claimed responsibility for the attack in an emailed statement, but when members of the group were asked about the statement, they could not confirm it was authentic.

Pakistan has improved its security situation in recent years but Islamist groups continue to pose a threat and stage major attacks in the mainly Muslim nation of 190 million.

Islamic State has sought to make inroads over the past year, hoping to exploit the country's growing sectarian divisions.

Monday night's assault on the police college was the deadliest in Pakistan since a suicide bomber killed 70 people in an attack on mourners gathered at a hospital in Quetta in August.

The August attack was claimed by IS, but also by a Pakistani Taliban faction, Jamaat-ur-Ahrar.

The military had dismissed previous Islamic State claims of responsibility and last month said it had crushed the Middle East-based group's attempt to expand in Pakistan. It also dismissed previous IS claims of responsibility as 'propaganda'.

A photograph of the three alleged attackers released by Islamic State showed one individual with a striking resemblance to the picture of a dead gunman taken by a policeman inside the college, and shared with Reuters.

Analysts say Islamic State clearly has a presence in Pakistan and there is growing evidence that some local groups are working with IS.

"The problem with this government is that it seems to be in a complete state of denial," said Zahid Hussain, an Islamabad-based security analyst.

Wounded cadets spoke of scurrying for cover after being woken by the sound of bullets.

"I was asleep, my friends were there as well, and we took cover under the beds," one unidentified cadet told Geo TV. "My friends were shot, but I only received a (small) wound on my head."

Another cadet said he did not have ammunition to fight back.

Officals said the attackers targeted the center's hostel, where around 200 to 250 police recruits were resting. At least three explosions were reported at the scene by media.

Quetta has long been regarded as a base for the Afghan Taliban, whose leadership has regularly held meetings there.

Baluchistan is no stranger to violence, with separatist fighters launching regular attacks on security forces for nearly a decade and the military striking back.

Militants, particularly sectarian groups, have also launched a campaign of suicide bombings and assassinations of minority Shias.

Attacks are becoming rarer but security forces need to be more alert, Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan warned.

"Our problem is that when an attack happens, we are alert for a week after, ten days later, until 20 days pass, (but) then it goes back to business as usual," he said.

"We need to be alert all the time."</s>At least 60 people have been killed in an attack on a police training centre in the city of Quetta in Balochistan province, Pakistani officials say.

The announcement on Tuesday came at the end of a military counter-operation.

About 200 trainees were stationed at the facility when the attack occurred late on Monday, officials said, and some were taken hostage during the attack, which lasted five hours.

Most of the dead were police cadets.

Mir Sarfraz Ahmed Bugti, home minister of Balochistan, said early on Tuesday that five to six armed men attacked a dormitory inside the training facility while cadets rested and slept.

OPINION: Understanding the context of Quetta attack in Pakistan

More than a hundred people were injured, he said. The death toll could rise as many cadets were seriously injured.

The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) claimed responsibility for the attack. The group, which has been outlawed by the government, has been involved in past attacks on security forces.

"Over the past few years LeJ has been targeted by the military, especially in Punjab province where its leadership was eliminated. And this attack surprised many that it still survives in some form," writer and columnist Raza Rumi said.

An emergency was declared in all government hospitals of the provincial capital of Balochistan, with the injured shifted to the Civil Hospital Quetta and the Bolan Medical Complex.

Previous attacks

Witnesses reported hearing at least three explosions leading up to the raid. Sources told Al Jazeera that it took at least 30 minutes before Pakistani authorities responded to the assault.

Al Jazeera's correspondent Kamal Hyder said the police training centre had come under attack in the past, with rockets fired towards it in 2006 and 2008.

Monday's assault came just hours after armed men shot and killed two customs officers and wounded a third near the town of Surab, about 145km south of Quetta.

The customs officers were targeted by gunmen riding on a motorcycle, said Zainullah Baloch, a spokesman for the local police. Baloch said two officers died on the spot and the injured one was taken to the hospital in critical condition.

Earlier on Monday, two assailants on a motorcycle killed a police intelligence officer in the country's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to Khalid Khan, a local police officer.

The Pakistan Taliban claimed responsibility for that attack. The group's spokesman, Muhammad Khurasani, said in a statement that the shooters returned to their hideout after the attack.

Pakistan has carried out military operations against armed groups in tribal areas near Afghanistan and in cities across Pakistan, but the fighters are still capable of staging regular attacks.</s>Story highlights Police cadets were sleeping in barracks when militants attacked, killing 61

ISIS says it was behind attack; military officials have blamed another militant group

Quetta, Pakistan (CNN) Cadets at a police training academy in Pakistan awoke to the horror of suicide bomb-wielding terrorists in an attack late Monday that killed 61 and injured 117.

"We were sleeping when terrorists attacked the center," said Asif Hussain, a cadet who was in the academy's barracks at the time.

He said the cadets had no guns and were powerless to fight back when the militants struck through the window.

Sarfraz Bugti, home minister for Balochistan province, said three attackers were killed during the assault in Quetta, which targeted a hostel at the academy where hundreds of police recruits were sleeping.

During the hours-long operation that followed, security forces killed one attacker, while two others died when they detonated the bombs they were carrying, he said.</s>Pakistani authorities have blamed another militant group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), for the late-night siege, though the Islamic State claim included photographs of three alleged attackers.

Hundreds of trainees were stationed at the facility when masked gunmen stormed the college on the outskirts of Quetta late on Monday. Some cadets were taken hostage during the raid, which lasted nearly five hours. Most of the dead were cadets.

"Militants came directly into our barrack. They just barged in and started firing point-blank. We started screaming and running around in the barrack," one police cadet who survived told media.

Other cadets spoke of jumping out of windows and cowering under beds as masked gunmen hunted them down. Video footage from inside one of the barracks showed blackened walls and rows of charred beds.

Islamic State's Amaq news agency published the claim of responsibility, saying three IS fighters "used machine guns and grenades, then blew up their explosive vests in the crowd".

Mir Sarfaraz Bugti, home minister of the province of Baluchistan, whose capital is Quetta, said the gunmen attacked a dormitory in the training facility, while cadets rested and slept.

"Two attackers blew up themselves, while a third one was shot in the head by security men," Bugti said. Earlier, officials had said there were five to six gunmen.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Army chief General Raheel Sharif both travelled to Quetta after the attack and participated in a special security meeting on Tuesday afternoon, the prime minister's office said.

One of the top military commanders in Baluchistan, General Sher Afgun, told media that calls intercepted between the attackers and their handlers suggested they were from the sectarian Sunni militant group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ).

"We came to know from the communication intercepts that there were three militants who were getting instructions from Afghanistan," Afgun told media, adding that the Al Alami faction of LeJ was behind the attack.

LeJ, whose roots are in the heartland Punjab province, has a history of carrying out sectarian attacks in Baluchistan, particularly against the minority Hazara Shias. Pakistan has previously accused LeJ of colluding with al Qaeda.

Authorities launched a crackdown against LeJ last year, particularly in Punjab province. In a major blow to the organisation, Malik Ishaq, the group's leader, was killed in July 2015 alongside 13 members of the central leadership in what police say was a failed escape attempt.

"Two, three days ago we had intelligence reports of a possible attack in Quetta city, that is why security was beefed up in Quetta, but they struck at the police training college," Sanaullah Zehri, chief minister of Baluchistan, told the Geo TV channel.

The Hakeemullah Mehsud faction of the Pakistani Taliban also claimed responsibility for the attack in an emailed statement, but when members of the group were asked about the statement, they could not confirm it was authentic.

Monday night's assault on the police college was the deadliest in Pakistan since a suicide bomber killed 70 people in an attack on mourners gathered at a hospital in Quetta in August.

The August attack was claimed by IS, but also by a Pakistani Taliban faction, Jamaat-ur-Ahrar.

The military had dismissed previous Islamic State claims of responsibility and last month said it had crushed the Middle East-based group's attempt to expand in Pakistan. It also dismissed previous IS claims of responsibility as 'propaganda'.</s>Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Scenes from the attack on a police academy in Quetta, Pakistan

At least 59 cadets and guards have been killed in an attack by militants on a police college in the Pakistani city of Quetta, officials say.

Three militants wearing suicide bomb vests entered the college late on Monday, reportedly taking hostages.

A major security operation lasted for hours and all attackers were killed.

So-called Islamic State (IS) said its fighters had carried out the attack, although officials have blamed another militant group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.

Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, has seen similar attacks by both separatists and various Islamist militant factions in recent years.

Hundreds of trainees were evacuated from Balochistan Police College as troops arrived to repel the militants. Local media reported at least three explosions at the scene.

Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption More than 100 people were injured in the attack

"I saw three men in camouflage whose faces were hidden carrying Kalashnikovs," one cadet said according to AFP news agency. "They started firing and entered the dormitory but I managed to escape over a wall."

The police academy is home to hundreds of students and many of the cadets who died were killed in the blasts, said Maj-Gen Sher Afghan of the Frontier Corps.

Image copyright EPA Image caption Quetta is the capital of Balochistan, which is battling separatists as well as Islamist militants

M Ilyas Khan, BBC News: 'Militants hit state symbol'

This assault has clearly highlighted the woes of Pakistan's south-western city of Quetta not just because of the heavy casualties, but because it came on the very day a judicial commission investigating an earlier attack held its first hearing.

That attack in August was carried out on a "soft" target - the emergency ward of a city hospital. The militants have now hit a symbol of the state, though some still consider police to be a softer target in a region where law enforcement has largely slid under the control of the military.

It all comes against the backdrop of heightened tensions between Pakistan and its two neighbours, India and Afghanistan. A top military official claimed these attackers had handlers in Afghanistan.

But many will point to Pakistan's own alleged use of militants as a state policy, which they say has now started to backfire. Northern Balochistan has been home to Afghan Taliban who have long-standing links not only to elements within the Pakistani establishment but also to al-Qaeda and Pakistani Taliban groups that have since turned against Islamabad.

Why are militants attacking Quetta?

The exact sequence of events is unclear but there was intermittent exchange of fire between the attackers and security forces for several hours, according to Dawn newspaper. There were also reports of a hostage situation.

Image caption The police training college is located about 13km from Quetta city in an area called Sariab

More than 100 people, mostly trainees, were injured.

Pakistan's army and the paramilitary Frontier Corps took part in the military counter-operation, which Balochistan provincial home minister Mir Sarfaraz Ahmed Bugti said was now over.

Two of the militants died after detonating their bomb vests and one was killed by security forces.

Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption The security operation to repel the militants lasted several hours

Pakistani media highlighted the nation's poor security situation after the attack, with leading TV channels changing their logos to black in a mark of respect for the victims,

Officials blamed a faction of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militant group and said the attackers "were in communication with operatives in Afghanistan".

However, IS said on its Amaq news agency that its fighters had carried out the attack, releasing an image purported to be of the three gunmen.

IS formed a branch for Afghanistan and Pakistan in January 2015 under Hafiz Saeed Khan. He was killed in a US drone strike in July this year.

The first suspected IS attack in Pakistan was in April 2015, when three soldiers were killed. It then claimed an attack on a bus in Karachi that killed 45 people, although the Pakistani Taliban splinter group Jundullah also said it was responsible.

IS said it also carried out a suicide bombing that killed 88 people at a hospital in Quetta in August, but that too is disputed, with another faction of the Pakistani Taliban, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, saying it was behind the attack.

The Pakistani military has been conducting operations against militants in volatile tribal areas near the Afghan border.

Balochistan Police College

Image copyright AFP/Getty Images</s>Heavily-armed militants wearing suicide vests stormed a police academy in Quetta, killing at least 61 people and wounding at least 117, Balochistan Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti said Tuesday, in the deadliest attack on a security installation in the country's history.

Three gunmen burst into the sprawling academy, targeting sleeping quarters home to some 700 recruits, and sent terrified young men aged between 15 and 25 fleeing.

Communication intercepts showed the attack was carried out by Al-Alimi faction of the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LJ) militant group, IG Frontier Corps (FC) Major General Sher Afgan said.

Separately, the militant Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the group's Amaq news agency.

The training centre houses at least 600 cadets. — AP

Most of the deaths were caused when two of the attackers blew themselves up. The third was shot dead by Frontier Corps (FC) troops. At least 117 people were injured.

“I saw three men carrying Kalashnikovs… they were in camouflage and their faces were hidden,” one cadet told reporters. “They started firing and entered the dormitory but I managed to escape by climbing over a wall.”

Bugti confirmed to reporters that there had been three attackers.

“They first targeted the watch tower sentry, and after exchanging fire, killed him and were able to enter the academy grounds,” he said.

"We have taken one of the suicide bombers' bodies into custody," Bugti told DawnNews.

The attack on the Balochistan Police College, around 20 kilometres east of Quetta, began at around 11:10pm Monday, with gunfire continuing to ring out at the site for several hours.

Major General Sher Afgan, chief of the paramilitary FC in Balochistan, which led the counter-operation, said “the attack was over in around three hours after we arrived”.

"The operation needed to be conducted with precision therefore it took us four hours to clear the area completely."

“There were three terrorists and all of them were wearing suicide vests,” he said. “Two suicide attackers blew themselves up, which resulted in casualties, while the third one was shot dead by our troops.”

He added that the militants had been communicating with their handlers in Afghanistan.

Afgan said communication intercepts showed the attackers belonged to LJ's Al-Alimi faction, which is affiliated with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The group itself, however, has not claimed the attack.

The area was plunged into darkness when a counter-offensive was launched, and security personnel threw up a cordon while ambulances zoomed in and out, taking the injured to hospitals. Military helicopters circled overhead.

The cadets were rescued from the college following an operation carried out by Special Services Group (SSG) commandos.

The training college is situated on Sariab Road, which is considered to be one of the most sensitive areas of Quetta. Militants have been targeting security forces in the area for almost a decade.

The training college has come under attack in the past in 2008 and 2006, with attackers firing rockets into the college playground. It covers about an acre of land located about 13 kilometres outside the main city of Quetta.

— AFP

'Darkness hindered operation'

The attackers entered the complex through the front gate after shooting the guard manning the check post.

A senior law enforcement agency's official said assailants had fired at the police training centre from five different points.

Two terrorists entered the premises after shooting at the guard manning the checkpost near the front gate, while the third reportedly climbed the rear wall of the police centre.

"Two attackers entered through the front gate," Senior Superintendent Police Operations Mohammad Iqbal had said earlier.

Iqbal said that the suicide jacket of one attacker was not detonated and his body was lying at the centre premises.

Initial investigations showed the terrorists had entered the hostel, he said. The SSP said that there had been trouble distinguishing friend from foe as it was dark at the time.

'The attackers were wearing shawls'

Eyewitness says he saw three terrorists enter the barracks

An eyewitness speaking to reporters after making a narrow escape said he saw three terrorists directly enter the barracks. "They started firing. We saw them and started screaming. We ran upstairs towards an exit."

He described the terrorists being covered in shawls.

The barracks and hostel blocks are situated deep inside the compound, making it hard to hear any sounds of gunshots from the building.

'Tried to break down our door'

Academy recruit recounts his experience.

Asif Hussain, a recruit at the academy, told DawnNews he was lying in bed and browsing Facebook on his cellphone when the attack began.

"We'd been told that if anything like this ever happens, we should hide ourselves under our charpoys and not show ourselves.

When the firing started, all of us lay down under our charpoys, turned off the lights and closed the door, he said.

"We heard a loud explosion downstairs. These people broke down the door and started shooting at them one by one.

"They tried to break down our door, but were unable to. Then they started shooting our windows in. They couldn't get in."

"Only two boys in our room were injured," he said.

Security beefed up at hospital

The injured cadets were brought to Civil Hospital. Those in critical condition were shifted to CMH Quetta.

Extraordinary security arrangements were made in and outside the Civil Hospital to prevent any untoward incident, especially in the wake of August 8 attack when a suicide attacker targeted the hospital.

An emergency was declared in all government hospitals of the provincial capital, with the injured shifted to Civil Hospital Quetta and the Bolan Medical Complex.

Injured rushed to hospital after attack

Forces rush to site of attack

Police Training College cordoned off

In August, a suicide bombing at a Quetta hospital claimed by the militant Islamic State group and the Jamaatul Ahrar killed 73 people, including many of the city's lawyer community who had gone there to mourn the fatal shooting of a colleague.

Balochistan is a key region for China's ambitious $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infrastructure project linking its western province of Xinjiang to the Arabian Sea via Pakistan.

Security problems have mired CPEC in the past with numerous attacks, but China has said it is confident the Pakistani military is in control.</s>QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Militant group Islamic State said on Tuesday that fighters loyal to its movement attacked a police training college in Quetta in southwest Pakistan in a raid that officials said killed 59 people and wounded more than 100.

Pakistani authorities have blamed another militant group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), for the late-Monday siege, though the Islamic State claim included photographs of three alleged attackers.

Hundreds of trainees were stationed at the college on the city outskirts when masked gunmen stormed in. Some cadets were taken hostage during the raid, which lasted nearly five hours. Most of the dead were cadets.

“They just barged in and started firing point-blank. We started screaming and running around in the barracks,” one police cadet who survived told media. Other cadets spoke of jumping out of windows and cowering under beds as the attackers hunted them down. Video footage from inside one of the barracks showed blackened walls and rows of charred beds.

Islamic State’s Amaq news agency published the claim of responsibility, saying three IS fighters “used machine guns and grenades, then blew up their explosive vests in the crowd.”

Mir Sarfaraz Bugti, home minister of the province of Baluchistan, whose capital is Quetta, said the gunmen attacked a dormitory where cadets rested and slept. “Two attackers blew themselves up, while a third was shot in the head by security men,” he said.

A Reuters photographer at the scene said authorities carried out the body of a teenaged boy who they said was one of the attackers and had been shot dead by security forces.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Army chief General Raheel Sharif traveled to Quetta and took part in a special security meeting on Tuesday afternoon, the prime minister’s office said.

General Sher Afgun, a senior military commander in Baluchistan, told media that calls intercepted between the attackers and their handlers suggested they were from the LeJ, a sectarian Sunni militant group.

Related Coverage Islamic State claims attack on Pakistani police college

“We came to know from the communication intercepts that there were three militants who were getting instructions from Afghanistan,” Afgun said, adding the Al Alami faction of LeJ was behind the attack.

LeJ, whose roots are in the heartland Punjab province, has a history of carrying out sectarian attacks in Baluchistan, particularly against the minority Hazara Shias. Pakistan has previously accused LeJ of colluding with al Qaeda.

Authorities launched a crackdown against LeJ last year, particularly in Punjab province. In a blow to the organization, Malik Ishaq, the group’s leader, was killed in July 2015 with 13 members of the central leadership in what police say was a failed escape attempt.

“Two, three days ago we had intelligence reports of a possible attack in Quetta city, that is why security was beefed up in Quetta, but they struck at the police training college,” Sanaullah Zehri, chief minister of Baluchistan, told the Geo TV channel.

The Hakeemullah Mehsud faction of the Pakistani Taliban also claimed responsibility for the attack in an emailed statement, but when members of the group were asked about the statement, they could not confirm it was authentic.

ISLAMIC STATE

Pakistan has improved its security situation in recent years, but Islamist groups continue to pose a threat and stage attacks in the mainly Muslim nation of 190 million.

Islamic State, which established a self-proclaimed Muslim caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria, has sought to make inroads over the past year, hoping to exploit Pakistan’s sectarian divisions.

Monday night’s assault on the police college was the deadliest in Pakistan since a suicide bomber killed 70 people in an attack on mourners gathered at a Quetta hospital in August. That attack was claimed by IS, and also by a Pakistani Taliban faction, Jamaat-ur-Ahrar.

A police cadet injured during the attack on the Police Training Center is wheeled into a hospital in Quetta, Pakistan October 25, 2016. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro

The military had dismissed previous IS claims of responsibility as “propaganda”, and last month said it had crushed the Middle East-based group’s attempt to expand in Pakistan.

A photograph of the three alleged attackers released by IS showed one with a striking resemblance to the picture of a dead gunman taken by a policeman inside the college, and shared with Reuters.

Analysts say Islamic State clearly has a presence in Pakistan and there is growing evidence that some local groups are working with it. “The problem with this government is that it seems to be in a complete state of denial,” said Zahid Hussain, an Islamabad-based security analyst.

The White House condemned Monday’s attack, and said the United States would support Pakistan in its fight against terrorism.

HIDING UNDER BEDS

Wounded cadets spoke of scurrying for cover after being woken by the sound of bullets.

“I was asleep, my friends were there as well, and we took cover under the beds,” one unidentified cadet told Geo TV. “My friends were shot, but I only received a (small) wound on my head.”

Another cadet said he did not have ammunition to fight back.

Officials said the attackers targeted the center’s hostel, where 200-250 police recruits were resting. At least three explosions were reported at the scene by media.

Quetta has long been regarded as a base for the Afghan Taliban, whose leadership has regularly held meetings there.

Slideshow (10 Images)

Baluchistan is no stranger to violence, with separatist fighters launching regular attacks on security forces for nearly a decade, and the military striking back. Militants, particularly sectarian groups, have also launched a campaign of suicide bombings and assassinations of minority Shias.

Attacks are becoming rarer, but security forces need to be more alert, said Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan.

“Our problem is that when an attack happens, we are alert for a week after, ten days later, until 20 days pass, (but) then it goes back to business as usual,” he said.

“We need to be alert all the time.”</s>QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani official: Death toll in attack on police academy in southwestern city of Quetta rises to 59.</s>At least 59 people were killed and 117 critically wounded when gunman stormed a Pakistani police training academy in the southwestern city of Quetta, government officials said today. Some 200 trainees were stationed at the facility when the attack occurred late yesterday, officials said, and some were taken hostage during the attack which lasted five hours.

Most of the dead were police cadets. Mir Sarfaraz Bugti, home minister of Baluchistan province, of which Quetta is the capital, had confirmed early today that five to six gunmen had attacked a dormitory inside the training facility while cadets rested and slept.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but one of the top military commanders in Baluchistan, General Sher Afgun, told media that calls intercepted between the attackers and their handlers suggested they were from the sectarian militant group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, whose roots are in the heartland Punjab province, has a history of carrying out sectarian attacks in Baluchistan, particularly against the minority Hazara Shias.

It was unclear what motive the group would have in attacking the police academy, a home ministry official said. Police, military and paramilitary personnel arrived at the training centre within 20 minutes of the attack and launched an operation which last around five hours, the home ministry said. A Reuters photographer at the scene said authorities carried out the body of a teenaged-boy who they said was one of the attackers and had been shot dead by security forces.

WELL-COORDINATED ATTACK Yesterday night’s assault was the deadliest in Pakistan since a suicide bomber killed 70 people in an attack on mourners gathered at a hospital in Quetta in August. The bomber struck as a crowd of mostly lawyers and journalists crammed into the emergency ward of the hospital to accompany the body of a prominent lawyer who had been shot and killed in the city earlier in the day.

Yesterday night’s attack also appeared well coordinated, with senior law enforcement agencies saying that assailants had fired at the police training centre from five different points. Later, the attackers entered the centre’s hostel where around 200 to 250 police recruits were resting, security officials said.

At least three explosions were reported at the scene by local media. Quetta has long been regarded as a base for the Afghan Taliban, whose leadership has regularly held meetings there in the past. The Afghan Taliban’s new leader Haibatullah Akhundzada openly taught and preached at a mosque outside Quetta for 15 years, until May this year. Akhundzada’s predecessor Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed by a US drone strike while travelling to Quetta from the Pakistan-Iran border.

Baluchistan province is no stranger to violence, with separatist fighters launching regular attacks on security forces for nearly a decade and the military striking back.. Militants, particularly sectarian groups, have also launched a campaign of suicide bombings and assassinations of minority Shias.</s>Dust and smoke rises after a bomb is detonated in by a bomb disposal squad on the outskirts of Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2016. Earlier a roadside bomb targeted a police patrol on guard for a polio vaccination team on the outskirts of Peshawar, killing one policeman, according to Superintendent of Police Furqan Bilal, who himself narrowly escaped. He said there were more improvised explosives devices buried in the area. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad) Police officers transport the body of their colleague who was killed in a bomb blast, at a local hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2016. The roadside bomb targeted a police patrol on guard for a polio vaccination team on the outskirts of Peshawar, killing one policeman, said Superintendent of Police Furqan Bilal, who himself narrowly escaped. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad) An ambulance carries injured officers to a hospital outside a police training school attacked by militants in Quetta, Pakistan, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2016. Gunmen stormed a police training center in the restive southwestern province of Baluchistan Monday, leaving scores of people killed and many wounded, authorities said. (AP Photo/Arshad Butt) Police officers load the body of their colleague who was killed in a bomb blast into an ambulance at a hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2016. The roadside bomb targeted a police patrol on guard for a polio vaccination team on the outskirts of Peshawar, killing one policeman, according to Superintendent of Police Furqan Bilal, who himself narrowly escaped. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad) Pakistani family members of victims visit a police training center where gunmen opened fire in Quetta, Pakistan, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2016. Gunmen stormed the police training center late Monday in Pakistan's restive Baluchistan province and detonated explosive vests, killing dozens of police trainees and wounding many others, authorities said. (AP Photo/Arshad Butt) Pakistani police officers stand guard outside a police training center which was attacked by militants in Quetta, Pakistan, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2016. Gunmen stormed a police training center late Monday in Pakistan's restive Baluchistan province and detonated explosive vests, killing dozens of police trainees and wounding many others, authorities said. (AP Photo/Arshad Butt) Pakistani volunteers rush an injured person to a hospital in Quetta, Pakistan, Monday, Oct. 24, 2016. A government official said tens of police trainees were killed when gunmen attacked a hostel at a police training center in Pakistan's restive southwestern Baluchistan province. (AP Photo/Arshad Butt)

QUETTA, Pakistan | Militants wearing suicide vests stormed a Pakistani police academy in the southwestern city of Quetta overnight, killing at least 59 people, mostly police cadets and recruits, and waging a ferocious gunbattle with troops that lasted into early hours Tuesday.

Pakistani officials feared the death toll could rise further, as the four-hours-long siege — one of the deadliest attacks on Pakistan’s security forces in recent years — left 117 wounded, some of them in critical condition.

The assault caught many of the recruits asleep in their dorms and forced cadets and trainers to jump off rooftops and run for their lives to escape the attackers.

By mid-day Tuesday, conflicting claims of responsibility emerged. The Islamic State group, which is waging war in Syria and Iraq where it has declared a self-styled caliphate, posted a claim on the group’s media arm, the Arabic-language Aamaq news agency. It said three IS fighters killed 60 police recruits in Quetta but the claim was not confirmed by Pakistani officials and IS did not offer any previously unknown details about the assault.

Earlier, a little-known breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, known as the Hakimullah group, also issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack. Pakistani officials, doubting the group’s capabilities in staging such a coordinated and spectacular assault, also could not confirm that claim.

While most of the casualties were police cadets and others at the academy, some of the army personnel who responded to the assault were also among those killed, said Shahzada Farhat, police spokesman in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province.

The attack in Quetta began at 11:30 p.m. on Monday, said Baluchistan Home Minister Sarfraz Bugti, with the militants shooting and killing a police guard at the watch tower before storming into the academy, located on the outskirts of Quetta.

Baluchistan officials had earlier received “intelligence reports that some terrorists have entered the province” but had no indications about possible targets.

“We had tightened security, which is why they could not do it in the city and chose a target on the outskirts,” said Baluchistan’s chief minister, Sanaullah Zehri.

There were also disparate figures as to the number of attackers. Provincial police chief Ahsan Mahboob said four gunmen were involved in the assault while a military statement later said there were up to six attackers.

About 700 cadets, trainees, instructors and other staff were inside the academy when it was attacked, Bugti said, adding that the gunbattle with the militants lasted for at least four hours.

Once inside the academy grounds, Pakistani media said the gunmen headed straight to the dorms housing the cadets and trainees and opened fire, shooting indiscriminately. Some of the cadets jumped off the rooftops and through windows to try to escape.

“They were rushing toward our building, firing,” one cadet told Pakistani Geo TV news channel. “We rushed for safety toward the roof and jumped down in the back of the building.”

Another recruit, his face covered in blood, told the station the gunmen shot at whoever they saw. “I ran away, just praying God might save me,” he said.

After the attack, Pakistani forces tightened security around the academy and Quetta hospitals were the wounded were taken. Footage aired on local television stations showed ambulances rushing out of the main entrance of the academy as fire engines struggled to put out fires set off by the explosions from the attackers’ suicide vests.

Most of those being treated at the city hospitals had gunshot wounds, although some sustained injuries jumping off the rooftop of the hostel housing the cadets to escape the gunmen.

“This war isn’t over,” said Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. “The enemy is weakened, but not eliminated.”

Maj. Gen. Sher Afgan, head of the Pakistani paramilitary force which is primarily responsible for the province, claimed the attackers had received instructions from commanders in neighboring Afghanistan. He said they were most likely from the banned Lashker-e-Jhangvi Al-Almi militant group affiliated with al-Qaida and the Taliban. The Sunni militant group has mainly targeted minority Shiite Muslims whom its members consider to be infidels.

The paramilitary chief spoke before the Islamic State and the Hakimullah group’s claims surfaced.

Afghanistan condemned the attack and dismissed Pakistan’s allegations that the assault was planned from bases inside Afghanistan. “Afghanistan is the biggest victim of terrorism and denounces all terrorist attacks,” said Mohammad Haroon Chakhansuri, spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

In a separate statement, Ghani also condemned the attack, saying that “terrorism is a threat throughout the region, which is reflected in the brutal act today in Quetta.”

Pakistan maintains that militants fleeing army operations in the tribal regions regularly escape across the border, finding safe havens inside Afghanistan. For his part, Ghani has been deeply critical of Pakistan, saying it has provided safe havens to the Taliban and in particular the violent Haqqani network.

For over a decade, Baluchistan has been the scene of a low-intensity insurgency by nationalist and separatist groups demanding a bigger share in the regional resources. Islamic militants and Sunni sectarian also have a presence in the province.

Pakistan has carried out several military operations against militants in country’s lawless tribal regions along Afghanistan border, including a major push that started mid 2014 in North Waziristan, a militant base. The Islamic militants have killed tens of thousands of people in their bid to overthrow Pakistan’s government and install their own harsh brand of Islamic law.

Later Tuesday, a roadside bomb killed a police official escorting a polio team that was travelling in northwestern Pakistan as part of a vaccination campaign, according to Furqan Bilal, a police superintendent in Peshawar. Militant attacks on polio teams are common in Pakistan as Taliban and other extremists denounce such vaccination campaigns as a Western conspiracy.

Associated Press Writers Zarar Khan and Asif Shahzad in Islamabad; Riaz Khan in Peshawar; Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, and Amir Shah in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.
Gunmen attack a Pakistani police training academy in the southwestern city of Quetta, leaving at least 59 people dead and 117 others injured. ISIL - Khorasan Province claims responsibility for the attack.