Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Raheel Sharif on Tuesday reached Quetta, a day after terrorists stormed a police training college in the provincial capital in one of the deadliest militants attacks this year.

PM Nawaz and Gen Raheel are attending a high-level meeting on security at governor house in Quetta. The premier cancelled his prior engagements in Islamabad for his Quetta visit.

Three heavily-armed militants wearing suicide vests stormed a police academy in Quetta, killing at least 59 people and wounding dozens more. At least 120 people were injured.

Most of the deaths were caused when two of the attackers blew themselves up. The third was shot by Frontier Corps troops.

Balochistan Chief Minister Sanaullah Zehri announced a three-day mourning period in the province to mourn those who lost their lives in the attack.

The prime minister and the army chief, accompanied by Commander Southern Command Lt General Aamir Riaz, National Security Adviser Lt Gen (R) Nasser Janjua, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar, visited Civil Hospital to meet those injured in the attack, Radio Pakistan reported.

Earlier, the army chief visited the police training academy where he reviewed the security situation and was briefed on the attack by officials.

Gen Raheel met police officials, and army and Frontier Corps troops who carried out the operation last night to clear the area and eliminate the attackers. The COAS appreciated the morale, courage and determination of security forces personnel.

The COAS was accompanied by the Director General Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lieutenant General Rizwan Akhtar and the Director General Military Intelligence Major General Nadeem Zaki Manj, ISPR said.

‘Poor security arrangements’

Senior police officials claimed there were poor security arrangements at the academy.

Despite security threats and being located in one of Quetta’s sensitive areas, the boundary wall of the police training centre was a mud wall five feet high, the officials said.

On Sept 6, Inspector General Police Balochistan, Ahsan Mehboob had requested the CM for construction of a boundary wall for the academy. The CM had promised the construction of a wall.

The attack, however, took place before the wall could be constructed.

‘Enemy weakened, not finished’

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar addressing a passing out parade said, “The enemy has been weakened but is not finished.”

He said terrorists are operating from across the border, adding that the remaining elements will be defeated at all costs, Radio Pakistan reported.

Nisar emphasised a need for greater coordination amongst law enforcement agencies to foil the designs of enemies.

Inspector General Police Sindh Ghulam Hyder Jamali ordered an increase in secuirty duties across Karachi after the attack in Quetta.

Condemnations pour in

Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid strongly condemned the terrorist attack at the police academy.

“Perpetrators of this act are enemies of peace, development and progress,” he said.

He added that the government would not rest until the elimination of the last terrorist from Pakistani soil.

He expressed his sympathies for the families of those killed and prayed for the early recovery of the injured.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and CEO Abdullah Abdullah condemned the attack in Quetta, saying “terrorism is a common threat for the stability of the region and world,” Tolonews reported

The United States also condemned the terror attack. State Department Spokesman John Kirby said that the US would continue to work with “our partners in Pakistan and across the region” to combat the threat of terrorism.