PAKISTANI COMMANDOS regained control of a police academy outside Lahore on Monday evening after militants rampaged through the com- plex, killing at least eight cadets and wounding scores before holing up inside for hours. Fighters loyal to Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud were suspected of carrying the attack, interior ministry head Rehman Malik told a news con- ference. He said one of the sus- pects was an Afghan. “Four terrorists were killed and three arrested,” interior ministry secretary Kamal Shah said. He said 89 police- men were wounded. Punjab police chief Khawaja Khalid Farooq said eight recruits were killed though there had been reports the toll would be higher as there were 900 cadets in the academy at the time of the attack. Three militants blew them- selves up during the final ass- ault, and commandos rescued 10 police being held hostage. News channels showed jubi- lant policemen shouting praise to Allah, making victory signs with their hands, and firing in the air in celebration minutes after a fierce firefight inside the main academy building. The assault came less than a month after gunmen attacked Sri Lanka’s cricket team in Lahore, killing six police guards and a bus driver. One witness said the gun- men attacked in groups of three or four from all sides. They struck while police recruits were going through their regular morning drill on the parade ground at around 7.50 a.m IST. "A glanade hit he platoon next to ours ... then 01els was continuous firim for about20 minutes," he policeman told leporters gadleted mund his hospital bed. "A man in light-coloured clothes - I think they were white - stood in fant of us, firingatus.Theywantedtodo as much damme as possible." The gunmen then went on tooculpy theacademy's main building, and another woturd- ed policeman recounted how hejumpedfamasecondfloor window to escape when the gunmenburstintoamomand began firig. Just before 4 p.m., conmlan- dos latulched an operation to retake 01e building, at the cli- maxof ajointoperationbythe army paramilitary rangers and a crack police squad. "Our forces stormed 81e top floor where they were holding positions," Major-General ShafgaatAlisaid."Theopera- tion is over the buiklim is in our oonhol." The siege had lasted nearly eight hours, with security forms firim from rooftops of nearby buildigs, while gun- men leturned file and threw glanades,atonepointforting anarmouredpersonnelcarri- er to letmat Before 01e siege ended, the police chief said one of the suspectedattackershadbeen caught Footage showed police kickimabeattled man on tile ground before leading him through a throng of journalists. Reportssaidthesuspectwas caught with a grenade in his possession and had an Afghan passport, drogh a cadet who fled dle carnmesaid he hearcl theattackersspeakigadialect Common to southern Pulliab. The eastern city of Lahole is thecapitalof Punjabplovince... If thoseaccountsaleconEct it would point to a nexus betweenmilitantsfromAlghan bottler alwas in he nordlwest anelPturiabijihactigioug,,1ike Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, that have forged ties with al Qaeda. LM was implicated in sev- eralassassinationattemptson Pakistan's former president, General Pervez Musharraf, and was blamed for a suicide bomb attack on the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad last September