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Updated at: 1515 PST, Friday, March 12, 2010
LAHORE: Two suicide attackers blew themselves up near security forces vehicles in R A Bazar area of South Cantt as crowds gathered for Friday prayers killing at least 39 people including five security personnel and injuring 95, Geo News reported.
"Thirty-nine people were killed and 95 wounded in the attacks," Inspector General Police Punjab Tariq Salim Dogar told reporters after visiting the blast site.
"We have collected concrete technical evidence, which will help identify the attackers. Both the attackers were on foot," he added.
Five security men were dead and 15 injured in the attack, security sources said.
"There were two suicide bombers who attacked two military vehicles within the space of 15 seconds," SSP Operations Mohammad Shafiq told Geo News.
"The heads of both attackers have been found," he said.
Rescue workers and paramedics rushed to the R A Bazaar, a densely populated area of the city. The area was crowded as the blasts occurred shortly before the main Friday prayers were to start.
Emergency has been declared in city hospitals and injured were shifted to CMH and other hospitals.
Security forces have cordoned off the area and traffic was blocked. Media was not allowed to go near the scene.
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Both the bombers were on foot, SSP Operations Chaudhry Shafiq told Geo News.
Six security men were among the dead, he added.
Director General Rescue 1122 told Geo News that 20 people have been killed and forty injured.
Rescue workers and paramedics rushed to the R A Bazaar, a densely populated area of the city. The area was crowded as the blasts occurred shortly before the main Friday prayers were to start.
Emergency has been declared in city hospitals and injured were shifted to CMH and other hospitals.
Security forces have cordoned off the area and traffic was blocked. Media was not allowed to go near the scene.
The blasts came four days after a suicide car bomber destroyed offices
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Suicide blasts in Pakistan's Lahore kill 45
12 Mar 2010 12:20:58 GMT
Source: Reuters
* Military targeted by two suicide bombers
* Taliban attacks despite security crackdowns
* Stocks fall after news of blasts, recover later (Updates casualties)
By Mubasher Bukhari
LAHORE, Pakistan, March 12 (Reuters) - Suicide bombers targeting the Pakistani military killed at least 45 people in Lahore on Friday, officials said, in a challenge to government assertions that crackdowns have weakened Taliban insurgents.
"Two suicide bombers attacked within the span of 15 to 20 seconds and they were on foot," provincial police chief Tariq Saleem Dogar told reporters.
The dead in the attack, the bloodiest this year, in a military neighbourhood of the city near the border with India included nine soldiers, military officials said. Almost 100 were wounded. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
For full coverage of Pakistan, click on [ID:nAFPAK]
For an analysis, click on [ID:nSGE62A03O] ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Pakistani authorities have said security crackdowns have weakened al Qaeda-linked Taliban militants fighting to topple the U.S.-backed government.
But the Taliban have renewed pressure on unpopular President Asif Ali Zardari, who faces calls from opponents to hand over his strongest powers to the prime minister.
If that does not happen, Pakistan could face new political turmoil while being pressed to defeat the Taliban.
There have been five blasts this week alone, including a car bomb suicide attack on a police intelligence building in Lahore on Monday that killed 13 people, and a shooting and bombing at a U.S.-based aid agency that killed 6 in the northwest.
STUBBORN INSURGENCY
Aside from facing a stubborn insurgency at home, Pakistan is also under heavy American pressure to open a new front and go after Afghan Taliban militants in border sanctuaries, a move that would tax its stretched military.
While Taliban bases have been smashed in government offensives in militant strongholds such as South Waziristan, fighters have a history of melting away to rugged areas which are hard for the military to penetrate.
"The militant network is not substantially or reasonably damaged and they are still capable of striking," said analyst Khadim Hussain.
A Reuters photographer said soldiers cordoned off the site of Friday's blasts and were not allowing anyone to approach. Troops were deployed on the rooftops of houses. An army helicopter was flying over the area.
Rescue workers with stretchers rushed towards the blast site.
Police official Mohammad Shafiq told reporters the heads of both attackers had been found. Suicide bombers often strap explosives to their bodies and the blasts take off their heads.
Pakistani markets have mostly shrugged off violence, which has spread from militant strongholds in the northwest near the Afghan border to major cities. But Friday's blast had an impact on trading, dealers said.
"The market entered the negative zone only because of the bomb blasts in Lahore and it is likely that investors will be more cautious now, ahead of the weekend, due to security fears," said Sajid Bhanji, a dealer at brokers' Arif Habib Ltd.
However, the main KSE <.KSE> index later recovered and was trading 1.4 percent higher.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi condemned the blasts in a statement, vowing "terrorism will never be allowed to succeed in its nefarious designs". (Additional reporting by Augustine Anthony, Zeeshan Haider and Sahar Ahmed; Writing by by Michael Georgy; Editing by Robert Birsel and Paul Tait) (For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/afghanistanpakistan)
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Twin suicide attacks seconds apart targeted the Pakistani military Friday, killing up to 45 people in the second attack to hit security forces in the country's cultural capital this week. The bombers walked up to army vehicles in the crowded R A Bazaar area of Lahore, blowing themselves up as people sat down to eat before the main Muslim weekly prayers were to begin, a senior official said. Lahore, a city of eight million near Pakistan's border with India, has been increasingly subject to Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked attacks in a nationwide bombing campaign that has killed more than 3,000 people in three years. The bombers targeted the cantonment, home to army officials and military installations, as well as hospitals and schools run by the military. There were civilian homes, shops and restaurants in the vicinity of the attack. Footage of the blasts broadcast by private Geo TV showed people running and shouting in panic.
One man, who apparently shot the video on a mobile phone, is heard murmuring: "Oh my God, Oh my God, Be kind to us God." Jumpy images of the second explosion showed a thick ball of smoke with a huge bang and people shouting. Mohammad Nadeem, a man in his 20s whose traditional white shalwar khamis was stained with blood down the front, told AFP he was saying prayers in the mosque when he heard the first blast and rushed out only to hear another explosion. "The second blast took place very near a military vehicle. I sensed real danger and started running," he said. "There were scenes of destruction in nearby restaurants and shops. There were broken chairs and tables and other items lying everywhere on the ground." The army sealed off the tree-lined street. Security officials said at least five soldiers were among those killed when the twin blasts shattered windows and sent debris flying from nearby buildings. "Forty-three people were killed and 134 wounded in the attacks," Lahore civil defence department chief Mazhar Ahmad told AFP. But a senior security official put the death toll at 45 and said six army personnel were among the dead. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Pakistan's Taliban claimed a suicide attack Monday that destroyed offices in Lahore used to interrogate militant suspects, killing 15 people, and pledged further attacks. Violence in Pakistan is concentrated largely in the lawless northwest border area with Afghanistan, but analysts have warned that extremism is taking a hold in Punjab, Pakistan's most populous and politically important province. Eight attacks have killed more than 170 people in Lahore over the past year, a historical city, playground for the elite and home to many top brass in Pakistan's powerful military and intelligence establishment. "We have the heads of both the bombers. There was an interval of 15 seconds between the two attacks. They were on foot. Their target was army vehicles," added police official Chaudhry Mohammad Shafiq. Nuclear-armed Pakistan is on the frontline of the US war on Al-Qaeda, under pressure to act against Islamist militants in the border area with Afghanistan -- which Washington calls the most dangerous place on Earth. The first two months of this year saw a decline in violence by militants in Pakistan after a significant increase in bloodshed in late 2009. Officials linked the reduction to the suspected death -- still not confirmed -- of Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud and military offensives that have disrupted militant networks. Pakistan's military claims to have made big gains against Taliban and Al-Qaeda strongholds over the past year, following major offensives in the northwestern district of Swat and the tribal region of South Waziristan. Washington says militants in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt are fuelling the war in Afghanistan, where more than 120,000 NATO and US troops are spearheading a last-ditch strategy to defeat a nine-year Taliban insurgency. Despite a series of reported arrests in Pakistan in recent weeks, scepticism remains on whether its powerful spy agency has made a decisive break with Islamist hardliners after well-established historical ties. Pakistan has confirmed only the arrest of Mullah Adbul Ghani Baradar, described by US officials as the Afghan Taliban number two, but also reported to have been in contact with Afghan government officials.
(AFP/Str)
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Terrorists fail to dampen Lahori spirit
* Majority of markets remain open day after series of blasts across city
* Shopkeeper says businesses open to show terrorists they had failed to defeat Lahoris
By Afnan Khan
LAHORE: The city showed on Saturday that it would not give into fear and stay indoors as life returned to normalcy after Friday’s twin-suicide blasts in RA Bazaar and low-intensity explosions in Allama Iqbal Town.
Government offices, schools and colleges remained open, along with a number of private institutions, although numbers of students in attendance remained low in public schools.
Also, an impression that private schools remained closed because of the attacks was not justified, as private schools stay closed on the weekends in normal routine. Many business centres were also closed until noon though they opened up in the evening.
Most of the city’s markets, despite closing in the late hours of Friday, were seen open with the exception of two major markets, namely Liberty Market and Hall Road. The markets, which remained open, included DHA commercial markets in H and Y blocks, MM Alam Road, Mehmood Kasuri Road, Ghalib Market, Moon Market, Kareem Block Market, Fortress Stadium, Shahalam Market, Akbari Mandi, Brandth Road, Anarkali, Mozang, Ichhra, Samanabad, Barkat Market, Model Town Link Road, Township Market, Panorama Centre, Yateem Khana, Pakki Thatthi Bazaar and Ghalib Market.
The traders’ body had announced to observe a strike on Saturday to show solidarity with the victims of the RA Bazaar bombings, as well as to avoid any further untoward incidents in the city.
However, most of the shopkeepers decided to open their businesses after the City District Government Lahore announced that government institutions would remain open, with a promise that the provincial government would provide citizens with “maximum possible security”.
The general public, especially businessmen, blamed India for creating such chaos through the resurgent terrorism. People from all walks of life strongly condemned Friday’s horrific incidents, saying terrorist activities were aimed at weakening Pakistan’s economy. They said unscrupulous elements who did not want to see Pakistan as a developed Asian nation were bent on scaring foreign investors away.
They also said they would not let Pakistan’s enemies succeed in their evil intentions and fight terrorism together. They urged the government and opposition parties to sit together and evolve a strategy to counter terrorism. Muhammad Ali, a shopkeeper at Fortress Stadium, told Daily Times that traders had decided to open their shops on Saturday in order to “show the terrorists that they could not scare the city into hiding”.
“It would not be advisable to close up the city, as it would give the terrorists the impression that their bloody campaign had been effective and that they were succeeding in their agenda to impose their ideology upon the masses,” he said.
Naila Mazhar, a customer, said she had come out to shop with her family despite Friday’s blasts. “Giving in to the terrorists and staying at home is not a good idea in the current situation, although life is dear to everyone,” she said, adding that citizens should be aware of the people around them and should support the soldiers who were sacrificing their lives to protect the country.
The Horse and Tattoo Show at the Lahore Race Club also drew a massive crowd, including families, and the Rangers’ officials who performed different activities received a thundering response while the tent-pegging activity also took place.
Several schools in Allama Iqbal Town and Cantonment remained closed on Saturday after Friday’s twin-suicide blasts in RA Bazaar and the low-intensity explosions in Allama Iqbal Town.
Normalcy has returned in the area, however, parents remained apprehensive about sending their children to school. An impression was formed that perhaps the closures meant that school administrations had caved into fear, although it is common practice for most educational institutes to remain closed on the weekend.
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