Suicide car bomb hits Lahore,killing dozens
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Daily News with wires
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mayıs 28, 2009 00:00
LAHORE, Pakistan - Pakistan is caught in the crossfire as a suicide attack on a police building and a spy agency office kills nearly 30 people in Lahore amid an ongoing offensive in the Swat Valley. The government brands deadly attack in Lahore revenge for punishing attacks against the Taliban in Swat, pointing to a widening net of extremist violence
Suspected suicide attackers detonated a car bomb yesterday that destroyed a police building and sheared walls off a nearby office of Pakistan's top intelligence service, security officials said. About 30 people were killed and at least 250 wounded in the attack in Lahore, they added.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the attack - one of the deadliest in Pakistan this year - could be retaliation for the government's military offensive to rout Taliban militants from the northwestern Swat Valley.
Lahore, Pakistan's second-largest city, sits near the Indian border. Assaults there have heightened fears that militancy in nuclear-armed Pakistan is spreading well beyond the northwest region bordering Afghanistan.
Two suspects detained
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing. Police said two suspects were detained.
"I heard firing and then a huge blast," said one policeman who staggered out of the rubble, saying that there were 30-35 policemen inside. "The wall collapsed on me. I was trapped in the wreckage and fell unconscious," Agence France-Presse quoted an elderly man as saying.
Rescue workers ferried out the injured on their backs, stumbling over the debris, while people tried to dig out bloodied bodies buried deep in rubble.
The blast, which some witnesses likened to an earthquake, damaged nearby buildings in the security nerve centre of Lahore, two months after a deadly assault on a police academy near the eastern city claimed by the Taliban.
"The initial investigation shows that the attackers first fired at the police and security pickets at the corner of the building and then an explosives-laden Toyota van blew up," said Lahore police chief Pervaiz Rathore.
"The terrorists also threw hand grenades, but they could not penetrate the building," he added.
Agents from the Inter-Services Intelligence agency were among the dead, a senior official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
"The moment the blast happened, everything went dark in front of my eyes," witness Muhammad Ali said. "The way the blast happened, then gunfire, it looked as if there was a battle going on," he added.
Interior Minister Malik blamed the attack on militants that government forces are fighting in the Swat Valley and the border region where U.S. and other officials believe al-Qaida and Taliban militants are hiding and planning attacks against Western forces in Afghanistan. "They are anti-state elements, and after being defeated in Swat, they have moved to our big cities," Malik told the Express news channel.
U.S. officials and others in the past have accused the Inter-Services Intelligence agency of having links to militant groups, including the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan. But the secretive agency has also been responsible for capturing and interrogating al-Qaeda terrorist suspects and collecting intelligence that helps the military's campaign against militants in the border region.
President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the attack in a statement and said the government remained committed to rooting out terrorism.
Offensive in Swat
The Swat offensive is seen as a test of the government's resolve against the spread of militancy, and is strongly backed by Washington. The army has said at least 1,100 militants have been killed in the monthlong operation and that the Taliban is in retreat.
The military yesterday said troops had cleared militants out of Piochar, a village in a remote part of Swat that is the rear base for Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah, and predicted that Mingora, the largest town in the valley, would be cleared of militants within three days.
Two other areas, Sultanwas and Mohmand, had also been emptied of militants and were now safe enough for refugees who have fled the fighting to return home. It was the first time the military has invited some of the more than 2 million refugees from the region to return to their villages since the fighting began, setting off an exodus that aid officials have warned could turn into a humanitarian disaster.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the attack - one of the deadliest in Pakistan this year - could be retaliation for the government's military offensive to rout Taliban militants from the northwestern Swat Valley.
Lahore, Pakistan's second-largest city, sits near the Indian border. Assaults there have heightened fears that militancy in nuclear-armed Pakistan is spreading well beyond the northwest region bordering Afghanistan.
Two suspects detained
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing. Police said two suspects were detained.
"I heard firing and then a huge blast," said one policeman who staggered out of the rubble, saying that there were 30-35 policemen inside. "The wall collapsed on me. I was trapped in the wreckage and fell unconscious," Agence France-Presse quoted an elderly man as saying.
Rescue workers ferried out the injured on their backs, stumbling over the debris, while people tried to dig out bloodied bodies buried deep in rubble.
The blast, which some witnesses likened to an earthquake, damaged nearby buildings in the security nerve centre of Lahore, two months after a deadly assault on a police academy near the eastern city claimed by the Taliban.
"The initial investigation shows that the attackers first fired at the police and security pickets at the corner of the building and then an explosives-laden Toyota van blew up," said Lahore police chief Pervaiz Rathore.
"The terrorists also threw hand grenades, but they could not penetrate the building," he added.
Agents from the Inter-Services Intelligence agency were among the dead, a senior official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
"The moment the blast happened, everything went dark in front of my eyes," witness Muhammad Ali said. "The way the blast happened, then gunfire, it looked as if there was a battle going on," he added.
Interior Minister Malik blamed the attack on militants that government forces are fighting in the Swat Valley and the border region where U.S. and other officials believe al-Qaida and Taliban militants are hiding and planning attacks against Western forces in Afghanistan. "They are anti-state elements, and after being defeated in Swat, they have moved to our big cities," Malik told the Express news channel.
U.S. officials and others in the past have accused the Inter-Services Intelligence agency of having links to militant groups, including the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan. But the secretive agency has also been responsible for capturing and interrogating al-Qaeda terrorist suspects and collecting intelligence that helps the military's campaign against militants in the border region.
President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the attack in a statement and said the government remained committed to rooting out terrorism.
Offensive in Swat
The Swat offensive is seen as a test of the government's resolve against the spread of militancy, and is strongly backed by Washington. The army has said at least 1,100 militants have been killed in the monthlong operation and that the Taliban is in retreat.
The military yesterday said troops had cleared militants out of Piochar, a village in a remote part of Swat that is the rear base for Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah, and predicted that Mingora, the largest town in the valley, would be cleared of militants within three days.
Two other areas, Sultanwas and Mohmand, had also been emptied of militants and were now safe enough for refugees who have fled the fighting to return home. It was the first time the military has invited some of the more than 2 million refugees from the region to return to their villages since the fighting began, setting off an exodus that aid officials have warned could turn into a humanitarian disaster.