7 dead in attack on Pakistan Stock Exchange

[KARACHI] At least seven people were killed in an attack on the Pakistan Stock Exchange in Karachi on Monday after assailants opened fire and hurled a grenade at the trading floor, police said.

Two security guards and a policeman were killed in the ensuing melee, according to a statement from the Karachi police.

Security forces shot dead all four of the gunmen, police added.

Seven people were also wounded in the attack.

"They had come to carry out an attack inside the building and take hostages inside," Omer Ahmed Bukhari, director-general of the Sindh Rangers told the media, adding all attackers had been killed within eight minutes.

"Police have recovered modern automatic weapons and explosive materials from the terrorists," the statement said.

Karachi was once a hotspot for crime and political and ethnic violence, with heavily armed groups tied to politicians frequently gunning down opponents and launching attacks on residential areas.

However, the situation has largely stabilised in recent years following operations by security agencies against armed political outfits and Islamist militants.

The operations were coupled with a series of large-scale military offensives targeting homegrown insurgents as well as Taleban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants - often based near the lawless border with Afghanistan.

Militant groups however still retain the ability to launch periodic attacks in many rurals areas of the country.

Monday's attack comes more than a week after a grenade was thrown at a line of people waiting outside a government welfare office in the city, killing one and injuring eight others, according to a statement from municipal authorities.

In 2018, separatist militants launched a brazen daylight attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi that killed four people.

AFP, REUTERS