Pak Army launches raids as kin bury Lahore blast victims

BLOODY EASTER Jamaat-ul-Ahrar says it targeted Christians; soldiers arrest suspects in Faisalabad and Multan

LAHORE: Pakistan’ s army launched raids and arrested suspects on Monday after a Jamaat-ul-Ahrar suicide bomber targeting Christians over Easter killed 72 people including many children in a park crowded with families.

Hundreds more were injured on Sunday when explosives packed with ball bearings ripped through the crowds near a children’s play area in the park in the eastern city of Lahore, where many had gathered to celebrate Easter. Anguished families spent Easter on Monday burying their dead.

“I tried to pump my son’s chest and give him CPR but he was no more. He died right in front of me,” Javed Bashir said as relatives wailed at his son Mutahir’s funeral.

“My son, my son, nobody should lose their sons,” sobbed the mother of another victim as other women restrained her.

A spokesman for the Jamaatul-Ahrar faction of the Tehreeke-Taliban Pakistan said the group had carried out the attack as “Christians are our target”, and vowed more assaults on schools and colleges.

In response the country’s powerful army announced it had carried out raids in Lahore as well as in Faisalabad and Multan, two other major cities in Punjab province. More were planned.

“Number of suspect terrorists and facilitators arrested and huge cache of arms and ammunition recovered,” army spokesman Asim Bajwa tweeted.

Witnesses told of children screaming as people carried the injured in their arms in the aftermath of Sunday’s attack, while frantic relatives searched for loved ones. Rescue spokeswoman Deeba Shahbaz said the death toll had risen to 72, with 29 children among the dead.

A spokesman for the Lahore city administration put the number of Christians killed at “10-15” as authorities scrambled to identify the dead.

Bits of human flesh and torn cloth could be seen Monday around the bloodstained swings and merry-go-round.