Volunteers carry a Pakistani injured in an attack, outside a mosque in Lahore, Pakistan, Friday, May 28, 2010. Suspected Islamist militants attacked two mosques packed with hundreds of people from a minority sect in eastern Pakistan on Friday,
laying siege to one center in a standoff with police, killing scores of people.28
Ahmedis targeted in Lahore carnage
* 80 killed, 92 injured as gunmen wearing suicide vests storm two Ahmedi worship places in Model Town and Garhi Shahu
* Two of seven attackers arrested, one seriously injured after three-hour-gunbattle with security personnel
* Rana Sanaullah says one arrested attacker is teenaged Pashtun
By Shahnawaz Khan and Hammad Yassar
LAHORE: Terrorists wearing suicide vests stormed two places of worship of the Ahmedi community on Friday, initiating an over three-hour-long standoff that resulted in the killing of 80 worshippers.
At least 92 people were injured in the attacks and were moved to various hospitals across the city. The dead included children and elderly people. The grenade-and-gun attack began when the assailants stormed the worship places in Lahore’s Model Town and Garhi Shahu areas, a few minutes before special Friday worship began at the two facilities.
Both the attacks were assisted by suicide bombers and began with a difference of a few minutes. Squads of terrorists stormed into the facilities’ halls firing guns, throwing grenades and taking hostages in one of the deadliest targeting of Ahmedis in Pakistan.
“At least 70 people have been killed in both the attacks,” Lahore District Coordination Officer Sajjad Bhutta told reporters.
Doctor Rizwan Naseer, head of the Rescue 1122 service in Lahore, said 108 people were injured as police continued to search for any remaining attackers. District civil defence official Mazhar Ahmed earlier put the death toll at 64.
“We have taken as many as 42 dead bodies from Garhi Shahu so far and more are coming,” he said. Another 22 died in Model Town, he added.
Arrests: After battling the terrorists for hours at the two under-siege worship places, city police claimed to have arrested two of the attackers from Model Town and one suspect from the Garhi Shahu facility for Ahmedis’ worship.
Police said the suspected terrorist apprehended in the Garhi Shahu attack was arrested when he tried to escape the facility under the garb of a worshipper.
The terrorists resorted to the same method of attack they applied in the attack at the Rescue 15 office on May 27, 2009.
TV channels ran footage of the cross-firing between the terrorists hiding inside the Garhi Shahu facility and police all day, with announcements being repeated from loudspeakers in nearby mosques asking people to stay away from the worship facility and take refuge at safe places.
In Garhi Shahu, witnesses said two bikers reached the main gate of the worship place, both armed and carrying bags in their hand.
They opened indiscriminate fire at the security personnel, killing 14 people instantly. The attackers then hurled hand grenades in and around the facility, raising clouds of blinding smoke in the area.
Meanwhile, five others joined the attackers and rushed inside the facility.
One of the attackers took position atop the facility’s minaret, launching sporadic firing from his refuge. The rest held worshippers hostage, killing them at will with gunfire and grenades.
Police contingents at the Ahmedi worship facility in Model Town said there were three attackers.
“They came into the mosque from the back and started firing. They were armed with hand grenades and suicide vests and other weapons,” senior police official Rana Ayaz told reporters.
According to the details, the three terrorists who attacked the Model Town facility first killed people deputed at the main gate for security and then entered the facility, hurdling hand grenades all around.
Security personnel deployed inside the facility retaliated with firing, but the attackers hurled more grenades and entered the main praying hall, taking the people present hostage.
They retorted to indiscriminate firing at the people busy in prayers, killing several on the spot. Police arrived shortly after and launched a rescue operation.
One of the attackers blew himself up as police made headway into the facility, while the rescue party arrested the other two after they were injured in the gunbattle.
Law minister: Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said the terrorist arrested in Model Town had been identified as Muhammad, while the other was unconscious. He added that that one hailed from Rahim Yar Khan, while the other was a teenaged Pashtun.
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May 2010 13:06:18 GMT
Source: Reuters
LAHORE, Pakistan, May 28 (Reuters) - At least 53 people were killed in attacks on two mosques in the northeastern Pakistani city of Lahore, hospital officials said.
The officials said more than 100 were wounded in the twin attacks. At one location, Garhi Shahu, 34 people were killed and at the other, Model Town, 19 people died.
The gunmen opened fire shortly after Friday prayers and loud explosions were heard at two Ahmadi mosques in residential neighbourhoods in Pakistan's cultural capital. (Editing by Chris Allbritton and Ron Popeski)
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Gunmen attack mosques, kill at least 80 in Pakistan
28 May 2010 15:44:36 GMT
Source: Reuters
* Attacks lasted three hours
* Suicide vests packed with explosives recovered
* Security officials suspect Pakistani Taliban (Adds details of attack, context)
By Mubasher Bukhari
LAHORE, Pakistan, May 28 (Reuters) - Gunmen attacked worshippers from a minority Muslim sect in two mosques of the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Friday, taking hostages and killing at least 70 people, officials said.
The gunmen opened fire shortly after Friday prayers and threw grenades at two Ahmadi mosques in residential neighbourhoods in Pakistan's cultural capital.
Sajjad Bhutta, deputy commissioner of Lahore, said at least 70 people had been killed in the twin attacks in Garhi Shahu and Model Town. A total of 78 were injured.
The death toll at Garhi Shahu was higher, Bhutta said, because three attackers blew themselves up with suicide vests packed with explosives when police tried to enter the building.
Police are still searching the area as two attackers were still at large.
Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said the incidents would generate greater resolve to combat extremism.
"It's a reminder to the nation that Pakistan will achieve its destiny only after we get rid of the worst type of extremism and fundamentalism," he told a news conference. "The entire nation will fight this evil."
He said one attacker had been arrested. Police in Model Town confirmed one gunmen had been arrested and another killed.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suspicion quickly fell on the Pakistani Taliban.
"It's too early to say who is behind these attacks," said a Lahore-based security official. "But my guess is that like most other attacks, there would be some link to the Taliban or their associated militants."
Punjab's Law Minister, Rana Sanaullah, said the arrested attacker was a teenage Pashtun, an ethnic group making up the majority in parts of western Pakistan and Afghanistan. This, he said, indicated a link to the Pakistani tribal area of Waziristan and strongly hinted at a Taliban link.
The attacks were precise.
In Model Town in the early afternoon, three gunmen rode up on motorcycles, Sanaullah said. Two of them wore suicide vests.
"They first threw hand grenades towards the gathering and then opened fire," he said. "To keep police away from the building they hurled some hand grenades outside, which damaged vehicles and wounded some policemen."
One attacker was killed in the attack, and another critically wounded, Sanaullah said.
"The prayer leader was giving a sermon when we heard firing and blasts. Everybody stood up and then two gunmen barged into the mosque and sprayed bullets," Fateh Sharif, a 19-year-old student, told Reuters from Model Town.
"They had long beards. They were carrying rucksacks."
Bhutta said a suicide vest laden with explosives was recovered from the Model Town mosque, where some attackers escaped. One fired at a television van before the area was made safe.
"He was young, clean-shaven. He sprayed bullets at our van while fleeing the scene," Rabia Mehmood, a reporter for Express Television, told Reuters.
ATTACKS LAUNCHED AFTER PRAYERS
Witnesses said the assaults were launched shortly after prayers.
"I saw some gunmen run towards the Ahmadis' place of worship and then I heard blasts and gunfire," Mohammad Nawaz, a resident, told Reuters.
Stock market investors shrugged off the latest violence.
"Initially we saw some selling after the attack but investors started accumulating shares at lower levels," said Asad Iqbal, chief executive at Faysal Asset Management Ltd adding that there was foreign buying which boosted local confidence.
The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) benchmark 100-share index <.KSE> was up 0.75 percent at 9,511.75 points at 4:05 p.m. (1105 GMT).
Friday's attack was the worst in Lahore since March 12, when twin suicide blasts killed 45 people, and the most deadly in Pakistan since Dec. 31, 2009, when a suicide car bomb driven by a Taliban militant killed more than 100 civilians at a volleyball game in the tribal areas.
Ahmadis are a minority Muslim sect founded in the late 19th century. They hold unorthodox beliefs among Muslims, including that Jesus Christ survived the crucifixion and died in Kashmir. Some also believe that prophets have come after Mohammad, the founder of Islam, but that he retains his primacy.
Pakistan is the only Muslim state to have declared Ahmadis non-Muslims. Its 4 million-odd members have seen their religious rights in overwhelmingly Muslim Pakistan curtailed by law.
Pakistan, a key U.S. ally in the fight against militancy, is often the scene of sectarian violence, with militants from Sunni Muslim groups attacking Shi'ite Muslim and Christian communities.
Separately, security forces battled Taliban militants in the Orakzai region near the Afghan border in the northwest and about 40 militants were killed and 30 wounded in attacks by government aircraft in three places, a paramilitary force officer said.
There was no independent confirmation of the toll. Militants often dispute government accounts.
Government forces have stepped up attacks in Orakzai in recent weeks after winding up offensives in several other areas. (Additional reporting by Kamran Haider in Islamabad and Faisal Aziz in Karachi; Editing by Chris Allbritton and Ron Popeski)
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City runs red yet again
Hospitals on red alert after twin attacks
* Terrorists kill 80, injure 92
* Survivors allege police response was not ‘quick enough’
By Umair Aziz
LAHORE: Emergency was declared in all adjoining hospitals to treat scores of injured people and receive dead bodies after the twin terrorist attacks on worship places of Ahmedis in Model Town and Garhi Shahu on Friday.
According to the hospitals’ administration, the death toll in the twin attacks had reached 80 until the filing of this report. As per the official record, a maximum of 39 dead bodies were brought to the Mayo Hospital, followed by 22 at the Jinnah Hospital. The Services Hospital received 13 bodies, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital four and the Lahore General Hospital and Sheikh Zayed Hospital received two bodies each. As per the spokespersons of these hospitals, 35 injured were brought to the Services Hospital, 20 to Jinnah Hospital, 15 to Mayo Hospital, seven to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, six each to the Lahore General Hospital and Sheikh Zayed Hospital and three to Iteffaq Hospital. The injured included Civil Lines Assistant Superintendent of Police Maroof Wahla and Civil Lines SP Haider Ashraf.
Talking to Daily Times, Rashid Ahmed, who received a bullet during the attack in Garhi Shahu, said, “The Friday sermon was ongoing when we heard gunshots and immediately afterwards armed assailants entered the building…they threw hand grenades and fired on the worshipers…panic spread immediately and everyone rushed to take refuge wherever they could. A few people even lied down on the floor pretending to be dead.”
Not fast enough: Admitted in the Mayo Hospital, 50-year-old Mansoor Ahmad, who was present in Garhi Shahu, said the police response was not “quick enough”, adding, “A lot of precious lives could have been saved if police had reached the area on time…the Garhi Shahu police station is at a stone’s throw away from the place of worship.” He said that the assailants threw several hand grenades and fired at worshipers, with some even taking positions on the building’s minaret.
Amir, a youth in his 20’s who was deployed at the main gate for security, told Daily Times that “very young looking” assailants started firing from a distance, as worshipers attended the sermon. He said that security personnel carrying weapons were the first targets. “We tried to shut the gate right after the attack, but we failed because a few worshipers were still standing outside…in desperation, I pushed a terrorist and as I tried to escape, he shot me in the arm and the leg,” he added.
Eyewitnesses and victims of the Model Town attack narrated the same plight. Talking to Daily Times, an elderly Shamshad Ali who received a bullet said, “Initially we heard gunshots and thought they were coming from nearby…soon afterwards the assailants entered the building and opened fire…panic spread among worshipers and everyone rushed inside the main hall to take refuge. The whole incident took just half-an-hour, in which I heard more than 20 explosions…those worshipers who remained in the centre suffered maximum casualties.”
Another victim of the Model Town attack said, “Hand grenade shrapnel hit me in the head while I rushed towards the security guard’s room…I took refuge in the room while the assailants kept firing and throwing more grenades. I cannot identify any of the terrorists as it all happened to fast.”
LAHORE: The terrorist attacks on two separate worship places of Ahmedis on Friday exposed to below-par security arrangements drawn up by the Punjab government in the provincial metropolis. A senior police officer, requesting anonymity, told Daily Times, “The city police department have not had their personnel properly trained, especially to deal with such incidents.” Citing both attacks, the officer said such incidents were an example of how poor the arrangements made by the government to protect places of importance for minorities actually were. “The authorities had deployed constables at both places of worship, but both constables failed to react quick enough to such an attack,” the officer said, adding that due to the prevalent wave of terrorism in the country, training commandos specifically to deal with such situations is must. Following the attacks, city police issued direction to beef up security at sensitive areas and a large number of security personnel were deployed across the city. Separately, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Tariq Saleem Dogar said that police had recovered a several hand grenades and explosive-laden jackets from Model Town.
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EDITORIAL: Brutal assault on the Ahmedis
May 28th, 2010, will be etched in history as ‘Black Friday’ for Pakistan. On the day that the country was celebrating ‘Yaum-e-Takbeer’ to commemorate the 12th anniversary of Pakistan going nuclear, Lahore witnessed two deadly terror attacks against the Ahmediyya community. Terrorists carried out simultaneous attacks on the Ahmedis’ places of worship — Baitul Noor in Model Town and Darul Zikr in Garhi Shahu — during Friday prayers when thousands of Ahmedis had gathered there. It was surreal to see the images unfolding on our television screens when the terrorists went inside the two houses of prayer and unleashed their terror on the innocent worshippers. More than 90 people died while more than a hundred others were injured. The Punjab wing of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed responsibility for the attacks. Wielding guns, wearing suicide vests and with hand grenades at their disposal, the terrorists launched well coordinated attacks subsequently leading to a standoff for hours at Garhi Shahu while the Model Town assault was relatively brief. The effort of the security volunteers of the Ahmediyya community during the operations must be lauded.
The dead were buried separately on Saturday after the Ahmediyya community cancelled a mass funeral because they were not “satisfied with the security arrangements”. This is the height of injustice since the Ahmedis are the most persecuted community in Pakistan but every government, past or present, has failed to provide adequate security to them. In an act of supreme opportunism under pressure from the religious extremists, the Ahmedis were declared non-Muslims by Zulfikar Bhutto in 1974. This opened the door for religious zealots to wreak further havoc when it came to the Ahmedis. General Ziaul Haq, a bigot, persecuted the Ahmedi sect by promulgating discriminatory laws specific to this community. Since then we have seen a constant rise in intolerance towards the Ahmedis. Instead of giving protection to our minorities as per the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we have castigated them.
Another worrying aspect of Friday’s brutal massacre was that apparently the Punjab government had been forewarned of possible terrorist attacks against the minorities. Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that two security alerts were sent to the provincial government on May 13 and May 26 warning them of such an attack. It is shocking to know that instead of doing anything about it, the Punjab government adopted a ‘devil may care’ attitude. We are already in a life and death struggle with terrorism, thus the Punjab government’s apathetic treatment of an intelligence report of such sensitivity is nothing short of criminal negligence. On top of that we have seen the provincial government’s top minister hobnobbing with the leaders of banned terrorist groups, case in point being Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah mollycoddling a Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) leader in Jhang for electoral purposes. Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif begging mercy from the Taliban to spare Punjab is another grim reminder that our leaders are playing a very dangerous game. It seems the PML-N is playing the role of a fifth column in this war against terrorism. Instead of owning up to the fact that there are terrorists in Punjab, the provincial government has shifted the blame to an obscure ‘foreign hand’. The government should not try to fool the public with red herrings. The people of this country want answers and not flimsy excuses. The Friday attacks were not just an assault on the Ahmedis but an assault on every citizen of Pakistan. *
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