BLAST OUTSIDE 26/11 ACCUSED HAFIZ SAEED’S HOME KILLS 4

LAHORE: A powerful car bomb went off outside the house of 26/11 Mumbai terror attack mastermind and banned Jamat-udDawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed in Pakistan’s Lahore on Wednesday, killing at least four people, including a child, and wounding over 20 others.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack which also wounded some police officers manning a checkpoint next to the house of Saeed, the jailed founder of terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

“Apparently what we see is that our law enforcement agencies are the target,” provincial police chief Inam Ghani told reporters. “You can see our police officials are also wounded.”

Three people were killed, Ghani said. A police spokesman later said a four-year-old child had succumbed to his wounds. Some of those wounded, including children, were in critical condition, a hospital spokesman said.

A car parked close to the house had exploded, setting ablaze nearby cars and motorcycles, a witness said.

LAHORE: A major bomb attack in a residential area of Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore killed four people on Wednesday, including a child, and wounded 14, police said. No one has so far claimed responsibility for the explosion.

Among those wounded in the powerful blast were some police officers manning a checkpoint near the house of Hafiz Saeed, the jailed founder of Islamist militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, who was not in the house.

“Apparently, what we see is that our law enforcement agencies are the target,” provincial police chief Inam Ghani told reporters. “You can see our police officials are also wounded.”

Three people were killed, Ghani said. A police spokesman later said a four-year-old child had succumbed to his wounds, making the death toll four. Some of those wounded, including children, were in critical condition, a hospital spokesman said.

A car parked close to a house had exploded, setting ablaze nearby cars and motorcycles, a witness, Fahim Ahmad, told reporters at the scene.

Ghani said police were investigating whether the explosives were detonated remotely or by a suicide bomber. If not for the police checkpoint, the car could have reached Saeed’s house, he added.

Lashkar-e-Taiba was blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people.

Saeed, who runs Jamat-udDawa, a charity linked to the militant group, was sentenced in November to 10 years in jail after being found guilty on two charges of financing terrorism.

A spokesman for the charity told Reuters that Saeed was in prison on Wednesday.

Saeed, who is a-UN designated terrorist on whom the US government has placed a $10mn bounty, has been convicted for 36 years imprisonment in five terror financing cases. His punishment is running concurrently.

He was listed under the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1267 in December 2008. The US treasury department has labelled Saeed as a “specially designated global terrorist”.

Islamist militant groups have been trying to make a comeback after Pakistani army offensives in their sanctuaries along the border with Afghanistan, but urban areas, such as the city of Lahore, have largely escaped the violence.

The Pakistani army has been battling the militants, who want to enforce their own brand of Islamic rule in the Muslim-majority country.