Recalling pain from day of horror (3)

Realizing he was facing an extreme situation, Ahmetjon rushed back to the police station to get his gun. "When I approached the house for the second time, I heard a woman screaming 'Please save us'. Her voice has been in my head ever since," he sighed.

He saw a government official lying just outside the door, covered in blood. A woman's body was in the courtyard. The house was already on fire. "The terrorists shouted 'This is our last day. Come, if you want to die with us'. I fired two warning shots, but four or five of them, armed with knives a meter long, ran toward me with no hesitation."

As Ahmetjon and another officer fought with their assailants in the courtyard, a man jumped down off the roof and slashed both policemen across their heads with a knife. The officers then ran out of the house, stopping about 20 meters away. They were later rescued.

Abudul Samat, 26, was one of the officers on duty at the police station. He said the men who attacked the building were well trained and fearless. "They were unbelievably brutal," he said.

Three terrorists arrived at around 2:15 pm. They were armed with two large axes and a knife. They pierced the tricycle's petrol tank, siphoned off the fuel and carried it up to the third floor of the building, where they set a fire. The tricycle was left burning on the ground floor.

"Most of the police officers were at the house at the time, so not many of us were left at the station," said Abudul. "The terrorists were very skillful when they siphoned the petrol and seemed to know that the officers' dormitories were on the third floor."

A few minutes later, a police backup team arrived. Two of the attackers were shot dead on the roof of the building. One managed to throw an axe at the police officers, despite having been shot.

"For me, the best way to pay my respects to my dead colleagues is to fight terrorism relentlessly," said Abudul.

Blackened bloodstains

The police allowed the public to visit the house in Selibuya township on the afternoon of April 27. Many relatives of the dead arrived to see the place where their loved ones had died.

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