EIGHT KILLED IN LAHORE BLAST
Dozens injured as militants target affluent suburb
Eight people die and 28 are injured in Pakistan market bombing,
LAHORE // Eight people were killed and 28 injured after a bomb went off in Pakistan’s second-largest city yesterday, in the 10th attack in less than two weeks.
The blast, the second to hit Lahore, the provincial capital of Punjab, this month, crumpled cars and sent panic rippling through the city after a wave of attacks across Pakistan that have killed more than 130 people.
“I saw so many bodies,” said Imtiaz Ali, a barber at a hair salon opposite the blast site in the upmarket defence housing authority suburb of the city, replete with boutiques and cafes. The building where the bomb went off was under construction near a market crowded with people, including children, the 34-year-old said.
“When I came out I first saw smoke, dust, upturned bikes and damaged cars. My own colleague’s car windows were blown out. My clients’ cars were blown out. I was close to fainting.”
Police and administration officials confirmed that it was a bomb attack.
“Four people died on the spot while four died of their wounds in the hospital,” said the provincial health minister, Khawaja Rafique.
No group has yet claimed responsibility.
A little more than an hour later rumours of a second blast in another affluent area near by sent ambulances racing to the scene, although authorities later said the reports were false.
Panic also spread on social media as citizens exchanged messages purporting to be warnings from intelligence agencies, including one that falsely stated a general curfew had been ordered over Lahore with shoot-on-sight orders. The rumours underscored growing nervousness through- out the country as a series of assaults shook Pakistanis after what had been a prolonged lull in violence. The attacks included a bomb blast in Lahore on February 13 that killed 14 people, and a suicide blast at a Sufi shrine in Sindh province that killed 90. The attacks, most of which were claimed either by ISIL or the Pakistani Taliban, have dented optimism after the country appeared to be making strong gains in its war on militancy, which started 15 years ago.
“After some relief over the last year or two, it’s turmoil again, it’s very troublesome,” said Asha’ar Rehman, the Lahore editor of Dawn, a leading daily.
Islamabad launched a crackdown after the attacks, saying it had killed dozens of terrorists in recent days and carried out air strikes on militant hideouts along the Afghan border. On Wednesday, the mili- tary announced a nationwide anti-terrorist operation, which defence analyst and retired general Talat Masood said would “target sanctuaries of militants in Punjab province and restrict their movements”.
Pakistan had vowed to hold the final of its hugely popular Pakistan Super League cricket tournament in Lahore next month despite the surge in violence, promising foreign players the kind of security cover given only to visiting heads of state. Rehman said such promises might have amounted to “baiting” militants. “There are so many who feel that it invites the wrath of militants unnecessarily.” Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest metropolis, was also the scene of an attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team bus in 2009. Pakistan has not hosted high-level visiting teams since then. Much of the improvement in security across the country over the past two years has been credited to an earlier military operation targeting militants in the tribal areas along the Afghanistan border.
Pakistan has accused Afghanistan of harbouring the militants who carried out the most recent attacks. Kabul and Islamabad routinely accuse each other of giving militants safe haven.