“God has bought from the believers their selves and their possessions against the gift of Paradise; they fight in the way of God; they kill, and are killed…” (Qur’an 9:111)
“Pakistani Militants Kill 4 in Attack on Court Complex,” by Declan Walsh for the New York Times, March 18 (thanks to Lookmann):
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan “” Militants stormed a court complex in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, killing 4 people and injuring at least 30 people, including a judge, in the latest assault on government authority in the region.
The attack at the court complex in Peshawar, the regional capital, triggered a fierce gun battle with the security forces during which the militants took hostages, according to the provincial information minister, Mian Iftikhar Hussain. He said the hostage situation was resolved several hours later.
The militants may have been seeking to free fellow extremists who were being held on the court complex, Mr. Hussain said.
The police managed to kill one suicide bomber at the court gates before he could detonate his vest, a police official, Masood Afridi, told The Associated Press.
But a second bomber managed to enter a courtroom and set off his explosives, causing many of the casualties. Pakistani media reports said the female presiding judge, Kulsoom Afridi, had been seriously injured in the attack.
Television footage showed terrified people fleeing the court complex after the attack. The provincial government cordoned off the area and deployed an elite commando unit to end the assault.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack. Peshawar has suffered numerous attacks by militants in recent years, both from the Pakistani Taliban and associated extremist groups who hold sway in the nearby tribal belt….