Pakistan arrests one in police academy attack

MANAWAN, PAKISTAN: Police and security forces on Monday arrested a suspect allegedly linked to a group of attackers who besieged a police academy where 20 people died during pitched battles, police said.

The bearded suspect wearing traditional shalwar kameez dress and carrying a hand grenade was nabbed from a graveyard close to a helipad just outside the academy compound, police official Nisar Ali told AFP.

The suspect was shoved into a security forces vehicle and driven away.

Armed with grenades and assault rifles, and some dressed in police uniform, attackers shot their way into the camp near Lahore and were continuing to trade fire more than six hours later with security forces.

The raid bears some similarities to the March 3 attack in the same area on the Sri Lankan cricket team, and underscores the scale of militant unrest that US President Barack Obama has called a "cancer" on Pakistan.