Lahore cop station car blast claims 12
Source: Agencies |
March 9, 2010, Tuesday
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Print Edition
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A SUICIDE car bomber struck a building where police interrogate high-value suspects in Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore yesterday, killing at least 12 people and wounding 61 more, including women taking children to school, officials said.
The attack broke what had been a relative lull in major violence in Pakistan, a nuclear-armed country reviled by some militant groups for its alliance with the United States. It also showed that insurgents retain the ability to strike the country's heartland, far from the Afghan border regions where al-Qaida and the Taliban have long thrived, despite army offensives aimed at wiping them out.
No group immediately claimed responsibility, but suspicion fell on the Pakistani Taliban and allied militant groups. Those groups are believed responsible for a wave of attacks that killed more than 600 people starting in October in several cities.
The bomb blast comes amid reports of a Pakistani crackdown on Afghan Taliban and al-Qaida operatives using its soil. Among the militants said to have been arrested is the Afghan Taliban's No. 2 commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.
The explosion went off outside a Punjab Province police building, police official Zulfikar Hameed said. TV footage showed a huge crater in the ground where the blast seemed to have originated. It appeared the suicide bomber rammed a car packed with up to 600 kilograms of explosives into the building's perimeter wall, officials said.
"This place was used to interrogate important suspects, but presently there were no such suspects, but more then 40 staff were manning the place," Lahore police chief Pervez Rathore said.
Noorul Huda, a student at a nearby religious school, was in his first class when the blast shook the area.
"With the huge bang, blocks and pieces of the roof fell upon us and six of us were wounded," said the man, who suffered a head injury that was covered by a bloodstained cloth. "It was total chaos outside and people were running and crying for help."
Police official Chaudhry Shafiq said 12 people had died. Of the 61 wounded, several were in critical condition.
Hospital official Jawed Akram said the dead included at least one woman and a young girl, apparently part of a group heading to a school. Several women were among the wounded. "People are coming with multiple wounds, many with head injuries and broken limbs," Akram said.
The attack broke what had been a relative lull in major violence in Pakistan, a nuclear-armed country reviled by some militant groups for its alliance with the United States. It also showed that insurgents retain the ability to strike the country's heartland, far from the Afghan border regions where al-Qaida and the Taliban have long thrived, despite army offensives aimed at wiping them out.
No group immediately claimed responsibility, but suspicion fell on the Pakistani Taliban and allied militant groups. Those groups are believed responsible for a wave of attacks that killed more than 600 people starting in October in several cities.
The bomb blast comes amid reports of a Pakistani crackdown on Afghan Taliban and al-Qaida operatives using its soil. Among the militants said to have been arrested is the Afghan Taliban's No. 2 commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.
The explosion went off outside a Punjab Province police building, police official Zulfikar Hameed said. TV footage showed a huge crater in the ground where the blast seemed to have originated. It appeared the suicide bomber rammed a car packed with up to 600 kilograms of explosives into the building's perimeter wall, officials said.
"This place was used to interrogate important suspects, but presently there were no such suspects, but more then 40 staff were manning the place," Lahore police chief Pervez Rathore said.
Noorul Huda, a student at a nearby religious school, was in his first class when the blast shook the area.
"With the huge bang, blocks and pieces of the roof fell upon us and six of us were wounded," said the man, who suffered a head injury that was covered by a bloodstained cloth. "It was total chaos outside and people were running and crying for help."
Police official Chaudhry Shafiq said 12 people had died. Of the 61 wounded, several were in critical condition.
Hospital official Jawed Akram said the dead included at least one woman and a young girl, apparently part of a group heading to a school. Several women were among the wounded. "People are coming with multiple wounds, many with head injuries and broken limbs," Akram said.
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