At least 53 people were killed and more than 100 injured on Friday in two suicide attacks targeting army vehicles in Pakistan’s central city of Lahore, unleashing fresh concerns over pro-Taliban militants renewing their effort to target the country’s main population centres.
Hours after the attacks a third bomb exploded near a police station in the city, leaving at least four people wounded., according to police officials.
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 US-based aid agency that killed 6 in the northwest.
On Friday two suicide bombers within seconds of each other attacked two army vehicles near Lahore’s Royal Artillery bazaar, located in a neighbourhood where the Pakistan army has numerous offices and residential accommodation for its officers and soldiers.
The casualties included at least six army personnel according to reports on Pakistan’s domestic TV channels. Mohammad Shafiq, a police officer in Lahore - the provincial capital of the populous Punjab province - told reporters that two suicide bombers “attacked two military vehicles within the space of 15 seconds” just before the afternoon prayers on the muslim sabbath.
No one has claimed responsibility. But an intelligence official in Lahore - quoting recent intelligence reports - said the attack may have been the work of ‘Lashkar-i-Jhangvi’-a group of hardline Sunni militants, believed to be linked to the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
In the past, Lashkar-i-Jhangvi has also claimed responsibility for a number of attacks targeting members of the minority Shia muslim community.
Western diplomats in Islamabad warned, the attack may be in retaliation for the arrests of high profile Taliban militants in the past month including Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the group’s military chief in Afghanistan.
On Thursday, Afghan president Hamid Karzai, during a visit to Pakistan said, it was too early to know if the arrests represented a fundamental shift in the policy of Pakistan’s military led security establishment, previously known to have supported Islamic militant groups. Despite the arrests, analysts including western officials warn, it is too early to conclude that Pakistan has permanently abandoned its patronage of such groups.
“We know today that Pakistan is suffering at the hands of terrorism and it is this suffering that brings us to a conclusion that Afghanistan and Pakistan must work together towards stability in both countries” said Mr Karzai noting the threat of militant attacks inside Pakistan was now comparable to the threat in Afghanistan.
Aside from an insurgency at home, Pakistan is also under heavy US pressure to open a new front and go after Afghan Taliban militants in border sanctuaries.
FT.com
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