KARACHI, Feb 28: Two policemen were shot dead and four other cops, a rangers official and a civilian were wounded here on Friday when a police camp outside the US consulate on Abdullah Haroon Road was attacked by a gunman.

The attacker was arrested and is being questioned, provincial police chief Syed Kamal Shah said. A spokesman for the rangers, however, told Dawn that there were two attackers, one of them had been arrested.

The police camp was set up to strengthen security at the consulate after the car bomb attack on it on June 14, 2002, killing 12 people.

The incident has come in the wake of Thursday’s firing at a coffee house/bakery that killed two persons and last Saturday’s firing near an Imambargah in Al-Falah in which 9 people died.

According to the police and witnesses, the suspect first shot and injured a policeman in Frere Garden across the road from the consulate, grabbed his sub-machinegun, rushed to the police camp and opened indiscriminate fire at the policemen who had just finished their lunch.

Two sub-inspectors died on the spot and three others suffered injuries at the camp. The dead were identified as Ameer Badshah and Murtaza. The injured policemen were Inspector Pervez Iqbal, SI Feroze Qureshi, SI Maqsood and constable Alam Zeb. Two other injured were Jameel, a rangers official, and Abdul Qadeer, a passerby.

A police official said the attacker loaded a second magazine but it did not work. In the meantime, the rangers officials ran towards the attacker and nabbed him.

Two pistols and a cellular phone were recovered from him, a senior police official said. He claimed that his accomplice might have been on a motorbike giving him a cover.

Rangers spokesman said the nabbed attacker was in rangers custody and was being questioned.

The dead and injured were taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre where a state of emergency was declared. Sindh home minister, home secretary and other police officials also visited the hospital.

Sindh home minister Syed Sardar Ahmed told reporters at the JPMC that it was an act of terrorism aimed at destroying the peace of the city and destabilizing the political government.

Provincial police chief Syed Kamal Shah added that the motive would be ascertained after the questioning.

“The attacker has been arrested and we are examining the calls to ascertain his identity and his links with other suspects.”

The police chief said the man was on the run when the police spotted him. “He shot twice in a bid to escape, but he preferred to surrender.

About the identity of the suspect, Mr Shah said: “Such suspects would always give wrong identity and fake addresses at the initial stage of interrogation. His identity is yet to be ascertained.”

He did not spell out the exact number of attackers. Mr Shah said the description of the suspect had been given by one of the injured policemen.

ATTACK FILMED: The attack on the police camp is believed to have been filmed by the US consulate.

Sources said at least eight different points leading to the consulate could be monitored simultaneously through close-circuit TV.