Sargodha "encounter" of "suspected suicide bomber"

[Saddle Bronc 124]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6927188.stm

'Bomber' killed in Pakistan city

The police in Pakistan say they have shot dead a suspected suicide bomber after the man failed to detonate the explosives he was wearing.

The man, who entered a police training centre in Punjab, killed a policeman before he was gunned down, police officials said.

One policeman was also injured when the man opened fire as he was stopped.

Pakistan has seen a massive increase in violence ever since Pakistani troops stormed the Red Mosque in early July.

Soldiers entered the mosque after its clerics and students waged an increasingly aggressive campaign to enforce strict Sharia law in Islamabad.

More than 100 people were killed in the siege, including 11 soldiers.

Thursday morning's incident in Punjab was the first such in the province since the recent wave of violent hit the country.

Senior police official Hamid Mukhtar Gondal told the BBC that the man entered a police training centre in Sargodha and tried to get close to 300 to 400 police recruits who had finished their drill and were returning to their barracks.

Spike in violence

When the man was challenged at a security cordon, he opened fire from his pistol, killing a policeman and wounding another, Mr Gondal said.

The police then returned fire and killed the man, he added.

Another police official Shaikh Omar said the man, in his early 20s, was carrying six kilograms of explosives on his body, along with a grenade and a pistol.

About 200 people have been killed in a wave of militant attacks since Red Mosque operation. Recently, a suicide bomber killed at least 13 people near the mosque in Islamabad.

The attack on the mosque was the most prominent battle fought by security forces in Pakistan since President Pervez Musharraf vowed to dismantle the jihadi network in the country in the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US.

Not much question, this was an "encounter"!

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Suspected suicide bomber. I'm sure the explosives were not his and he was carrying them for a friend.

[mawilson 2,133]

Tragic.