Pakistan shaken by fresh attacks

Aftermath of the attack on a Federal Investigation Agency building in Lahore Gunmen have attacked law enforcement buildings in Pakistan, with at least 18 people reported killed in Lahore and eight in a suicide bombing elsewhere. The highest-profile target in Lahore was the Federal Investigation Agency offices. There were also co-ordinated attacks on two police academies. Meanwhile, in the north-western town of Kohat, a suicide bomber rammed his car into a police station, killing eight. There has been an upsurge in violence in Pakistan in recent weeks. Lahore itself was long spared Pakistan's militant violence, but there have been a number of attacks in the city since the start of the year. Belt recovered Four gunmen attacked the Federal Investigation Agency building (FIA) in Lahore on Thursday, officials say. At least seven people were killed in the battle - including police and attackers, officials said. A police spokesman said: "We found grenades and a suicide jacket near one dead person. Two dead bodies have been found near the front gate. The building has been cleared and the employees are safe." In March 2008, 21 people were killed in a suicide attack on the same FIA building. At least 11 people - including police officers and suspected militants - were killed in Thursday's assaults on the other security facilities in Lahore. One was the Manawan police training academy, where police said three of the attackers had blown themselves up. The other target was the Bedia police training centre. Fighting is reported to be continuing there. Kohat destruction Thursday's attack in Kohat saw a bomber ram his car into the wall of the police station compound, police said, causing part of the station to collapse with the impact.Eyewitnesses say that both civilians and policemen are among the dead. The BBC's Aleem Maqbool in Islamabad says that although no group has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks there is a feeling that the militants are trying to seize the initiative. The finger of blame, our correspondent adds, will be pointed towards the Taliban, who just a couple of weeks ago had threatened a wave of attacks against security forces unless the army's operations against them came to an end. Lahore, the centre of Pakistan's cultural life and its most liberal major city, has seen a string of deadly attacks throughout 2009. In one of the most notable incidents, in March gunmen attacked the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team, killing six policemen. In June a prominent anti-Taliban cleric was killed by suicide bomber at his religious school. More than 100 people have died in a series of attacks across Pakistan in the past three weeks. These have included a raid by militants on the army headquarters in Rawalpindi at the weekend, in which at least 20 people were killed. About 40 people were taken hostage, until security forces stormed the compound.