Funeral of police officers who died in Lahore attacks

(15 Oct 2009) SHOTLIST ++NIGHT SHOTS++ 1. Policemen carrying coffins of dead colleagues 2. Family members of the dead policemen mourning 3. Wide of coffins being carried 4. Coffins being draped in Pakistani police and national flags 5. Tilt down of coffins 6. Various shots of prayer and funeral ceremony 7. Mid shot of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and other police officials attending funeral ceremony 8. Various shots of honour guard playing at funeral 9. Shahbaz Sharif laying flowers on coffins 10. SOUNDBITE (Urdu) Rana Sanaullah, Provincial law minister: "As far as the Indian (foreign intelligence) agency RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) is concerned I've said before that in Baluchistan and in other cities, and even in the incidents in Lahore before the ones today, there is evidence (of RAW's involvement in attacks)." 11. Wide of media surrounding Sanaullah 12. Various shots of relatives around the coffins 13. Coffins being taken by relatives to their respective cities STORYLINE Funerals took place on Thursday of 11 elite force and police officers killed when teams of gunmen launched coordinated attacks on three law enforcement facilities in Pakistan's second-largest city of Lahore. On the same day, car bombs also exploded in two cities near the Afghan border, killing a total of 39 people in an escalating wave of anti-government violence. The assaults began about 9 am (0300GMT) when a single gunman wearing civilian clothes and a suicide vest burst into the offices of the Federal Investigation Agency, the national law enforcement body, and began shooting, said Rana Sanaullah, the provincial law minister. He killed two men and four civilians and was killed by guards at the building before he could detonate his explosives, he said. Soon after, three or four gunmen raided a police training school on the outskirts of the city, killing 11 officers and recruits, before police killed all the attackers, Sanaullah said. The facility was the scene earlier this year of an eight-hour militant standoff that left 12 dead. Sanaullah blamed Indian external intelligence agency, RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) for involvement in Thursday's and previous attacks in Pakistan. "I've said before that in Baluchistan and in other cities, and even in the incidents in Lahore before the ones today, there is evidence," Sanaullah said, without elaborating. He was speaking at the funeral ceremony of the 11 elite force and police officers killed Thursday in Lahore's attacks. Ties between the South Asian neighbours have never been good and both sides frequently accuse each other of illegal activities on each other's soil. Thursday's assaults, aimed at scuttling a planned offensive into the Taliban heartland near Afghanistan, highlight Islamist militants' ability to carry out sophisticated strikes on heavily fortified facilities and expose the failure of the intelligence agencies to adequately infiltrate the extremist cells. The attacks were also the latest to underscore the growing threat to Punjab, of which Lahore is the capital. The Taliban are believed to have made inroads in the province, located next to India, and linked up with local insurgent outfits. In the Taliban-riddled northwest, meanwhile, a suicide car bomb exploded next to a police station in Kohat city, collapsing half the building and killing 11 people - three police officers and eight civilians - Kohat police chief Abdullah Khan said. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...