The militant group that claimed responsibility for the March 30 assault on a Pakistani police academy near Lahore said March 31 it will carry out more attacks unless Pakistani troops withdraw from tribal areas near the Afghan border and the United States stops attacks with drones against militants in Afghanistan.

Pakistani police officers arrest one of the alleged gunmen at a police training school near Lahore on March 30. AP PHOTO

Omar Farooq, who said he is the spokesman for little-known Fedayeen al-Islam, also said the group carried out a similar ambush-style attack against the Sri Lankan cricket team earlier in March in Lahore. In the latest incident, gunmen stormed the police academy and killed at least six trainee officers before being overpowered by Pakistani commandos.

The group previously said it was behind the September bombing of the Marriott hotel in Islamabad that killed 54 people.

Some of the gunmen who attacked the academy wore police uniforms. The group managed to hold off security forces for about eight hours, seizing hostages and throwing grenades.

Four suspected militants were arrested while at least three blew themselves up during the battle, said Rao Iftikhar, a top government official in Punjab province. He said three other bodies were still unidentified, two of them wearing police uniforms.

Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik said one of the arrested men was an Afghan and that investigators believe the attack may have its roots along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, where Taliban militants have hide-outs. But Malik also pointed fingers at a Punjab-based Sunni extremist group and refused to rule out an Indian role.