Triple blasts in Lahore, 29 killed

[Neo]

Triple blasts in Lahore, 29 killed

* 243 injured as two suicide attackers target Shia procession after hand grenade thrown on crowd near Bhaati Gate

* Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Al-Alami accepts responsibility

By Shahnawaz Khan

LAHORE: Terrorists on Wednesday targeted Shias marking Hazrat Ali’s (RA) martyrdom in Lahore, killing 29 people and injuring 243 others in two suicide and one grenade attack.

Banned terrorist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Al-Alami has accepted responsibility for the three attacks that occurred minutes apart in Lahore’s Bhaati Gate locality. The mourning procession was in its last stages and was about to end at Karbala Gamay Shah, near Data Darbar, when the terrorists stuck.

Eyewitnesses said that the participants had gathered outside Gamay Shah for Iftari, when a terrorist, standing on a nearby rooftop, threw a hand grenade on the crowd. The explosion killed one person and injured dozens others. The ensuing stampede spread to the procession that was stretched on the road from Data Darbar to Anarkali.

The security ring created by police personnel around the procession by blocking roads then collapsed as people started running in every direction. A suicide bomber, who succeeded in penetrating to the middle of the crowd, then exploded himself at Bhatti Gate Chowk, about 100 yards from the site of the grenade attack.

The blast was far more deadly and everywhere people were seen laying in pools of blood, most of whom were later pronounced dead. In the meantime, several small groups of furious people started attacking the nearby police personnel. At that time, another suicide bomber exploded himself at Bhaati Gate Chowk. The third explosion was the deadliest and caused a large number of causalities. The mob then got out of control and started burning tyers and chanting slogans. Police tried to control the situation by resorting to tear-gassing and baton-charging the protesters. However, this only intensified the protest. The crowd also tried to burn down government and private property, while a small group attacked the Lower Mall and Bhaati Gate police stations. Two police cars and three motorcycles were also set on fire. Rangers personnel were then called in to bring the situation under control.

Later, Lahore Commissioner Khusro Pervez acknowledged before the media that police negligence was one of the main reasons behind the explosions and the subsequent violence.

Attack condemned: President Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani have condemned the blasts and said the attackers would not escape justice. They expressed sorrow and grief over the loss of precious lives in the blasts. Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has also strongly condemned the attack and announced Rs 500,000 each for families of the people who were killed in the attacks. Senator Abbas Kumaili, a prominent Shia scholar, has called for three days of mourning over the attack and lashed out at the bombers.

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

[Neo]

Police had intelligence about attack threat

LAHORE: Intelligence officials on Wednesday blamed the Lahore police of gross negligence, as it had failed to heed warnings that terrorists would try to target mourners on the martyrdom day of Hazrat Ali (RA). Intelligence officials requesting anonymity told Daily Times that about a week earlier, intelligence agencies had forwarded reports to the Lahore police that warned that terrorists could disturb the law and order situation. “The Lahore police it seems totally neglected the checking and surveillance of more than 50 small hotels and inns located near Karbala Gamay Shah. The terrorists also seem to have detailed information about the Lahore police’s security arrangements,” the sources said. The sources said that intelligence personnel believed that the three terrorists who targeted the procession had not come from outside and were already living somewhere inside the security circle. The officials said Lahore police had failed to provide adequate security along the main route of the procession.

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

[Neo]

US adds TTP to terrorism blacklist

WASHINGTON: The Obama administration on Wednesday added the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to its international terrorism blacklist, targeting the group and its leaders with financial and travel sanctions. “The group threatens US national security,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a notice published in the Federal Register. She designated the group a “foreign terrorist organisation” under US law. In addition, Clinton named the group and its top leaders, Hakimullah Mehsud and Waliur Rehman, “specially designated global terrorists”, a classification that imposes additional state and treasury department sanctions. “Each has committed, or poses a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of US nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States,” she said in the notice. The move will freeze the group’s assets in US, makes it illegal for Americans to fund or support them and bars them from entering the US. US prosecutors have also charged Hakimullah for the plot that killed seven CIA employees at an American base in Afghanistan last December, the US Justice Department said on Wednesday. ap

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

[Neo]

Lahore mourns triple bombing as death toll rises

Thursday, 02 Sep, 2010

A man reacts over explosions as protesters burn vehicles in Lahore, Pakistan on Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010. – AP Home

LAHORE: The death toll from suicide attacks that targeted a busy procession in Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore rose to 31 on Thursday as six people succumbed to their injuries, officials said.

Three suicide bombers targeted a Shia mourning procession made up of thousands of people on Wednesday at the moment of the breaking of the fast in the holy month of Ramazan, wounding hundreds.

It was the first major attack in Pakistan since devastating floods engulfed a fifth of the volatile country over the past month in its worst disaster yet.

“Thirty-one people have died and a total of 281 were injured,” Fahim Jehanzeb, a spokesman for Lahore's rescue agency told AFP, adding that he feared more would die from their injuries.

Sajjad Bhutta, a senior local administration official, also confirmed the new death toll.

A mass funeral was hastily arranged for later in the day with police and paramilitary providing tight security, while local authorities announced a day of mourning with all public and private institutions closed.

An AFP reporter said that all markets were closed and the roads were quiet on Thursday, after the attacks provoked an outpouring of fury in the city a night earlier, with mourners trying to torch a nearby police station.

Police fired tear gas to force back the surging crowd as furious mourners beat the bodies of the suicide bombers with sticks and shoes, while others beat their own heads and chests at the site of the attacks in frustration.

The emotional crowd chanted slogans against the police and the provincial government over their failure to protect the Shia procession, an AFP correspondent on the scene said.

Lahore, a city of eight million, has been increasingly subject to Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked attacks in a nationwide bombing campaign that has killed more than 3,600 people in three years.

The procession hit by the blasts was being held to mark the anniversary of the martyrdom of Hazarat Ali, who is revered by Shia Muslims and is the son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammed.

Shias account for around 20 per cent of Pakistan's mostly Sunni Muslim population of 160 million.

Religious violence in Pakistan, mostly between Sunni and Shiite groups, has killed more than 4,000 people in the past decade, and it is not the first time Lahore has seen bombers target religious gatherings. – AFP

DAWN.COM | Pakistan | Lahore mourns triple bombing as death toll rises

[vinod2070]

RIP. It is sickening to see these terrorists able to strike almost at will.

[noname]

Long ago when so many people from Pakistan were applauding the bombing of civilians in Israel I told them that supporting something so evil, no matter the reasons would come back to haunt them. That if you could justfie murdering civilians you could justfie anything. What can you say, but what gos around comes around, that chickens all ways comes home to roost. paybacks are hell That evil is repaid by evil.

[vinod2070]

^^ In addition to the creeping extremism of the society, sectarian violence has been present in Pakistan for decades.

I recently read a report that more than 5,600 Shia have been killed in sectarian violence over the last few decades. They are also the target of the recent killings in Lahore and Queta.

Apparently, it even has had official sanction.

You can go a few more years earlier in 1984 when General Zia sent his notorious lashkar led and supervised by no other than Brigadier Musharraf aka General Musharraf, the enlightened, the moderate. This proto-Talibanic lashkar not just burnt alive hundreds of the Shias of Gilgit, it burnt alive the animals too owned by the Shias. Of course, this can be justified because those animals were not human, Muslim, or Pakistani.

Talibanization of the heart

[noname]

Is this true, or a hoax.

Email going around in the USA.

Muslim Punish Eight-Year Old for Stealing BREAD: GRAPHIC!

[peace13]

When our leaders will have joint meetings with Lashkar e Jhangvi peaople these things are prone to happen and nothing can be done.

[noname]

See a couple of people were killed at a Mosque in Pakistan this morning. How people can target people in places of worship is so far beyond my understanding as to be from alien planet.. Can any one explain that to me.