Lahore: A group of terrorists disguised as policemen stormed the Jinnah Hospital in the heart of Lahore late on Monday night killing six people and injuring six others.
The attack was reportedly a bid to free a terrorist, Amir Muaz, captured in an injured condition during an attack on a mosque in the city last week.
"Four militants clad in police uniforms entered the Jinnah Hospital shortly before midnight and fired indiscriminately in a bid to kill or free the injured terrorist so that there is no scope of widening our investigation," Punjab police chief Tariq Salim Dogar told reporters.
About 800 to 900 patients were present in the hospital when the attack took place. The terrorists also took some doctors hostage before making their way to the roof of the hospital and escaping.
Superintendent (Investigation) Abdul Rab told PTI that the attackers entered the hospital from the rooftop.
They then made their way to the intensive care unit on the first floor where the injured terrorist was being treated.
After shooting at some policemen deployed on the first floor, they tried to storm the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Rab said.
However, other policemen retaliated. The attackers then fled from the hospital in a police van.
Police cordoned off the area and laid road blocks in different parts of Lahore in a bid to capture them.
Muaz was shifted from the hospital to a "safe" location, police said. He was captured when he attacked a mosque of the minority Ahmedi sect in the Model Town area of Lahore on Friday.
At least 95 people were killed and over 100 injured when two groups of terrorists attacked two Ahmedi mosques.
Some injured members of the Ahmedi sect are also being treated in the Jinnah Hospital. (With PTI inputs)