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 About
10 of those killed were soldiers, said Lahore police chief Parvaiz
Rathore.
The bombers, who were on foot, struck RA Bazaar, a residential and
commercial neighborhood where several security agencies have facilities.
Security forces swarmed the area as thick black smoke rose into the sky and
bystanders rushed the injured into ambulances. Video being shot with a
mobile phone just after the first explosion showed a large burst of orange
flame suddenly erupting in the street, according to GEO TV, which broadcast
a short clip of the footage shot by Tabraiz Bukhari.
"Oh my God! Oh my God! Who are these beasts? Oh my God!" Bukhari can be
heard shouting after the blast in a mixture of English and Urdu.
Senior police official Tariq Saleem Dogar said 39 people were killed, and
another 95 were hurt. Some of the wounded were missing limbs, lying in pools
of blood after the explosions, eyewitness Afzal Awan said.
"I saw smoke rising everywhere," Awan told reporters. "A lot of people
were crying."
No group immediately claimed responsibility, but suspicion quickly fell
on the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaida.
The militants are believed to have been behind scores of attacks in
U.S.-allied Pakistan over the last several years, including a series of
strikes that began in October and lasted around three months, killing some
600 people in apparent retaliation for an army offensive along the Afghan
border.
In more recent months, the attacks were smaller, fewer and confined to
remote regions near Afghanistan.
But on Monday, a suicide car bomber struck a building in Lahore where
police interrogated high-value suspects -- including militants -- killing at
least 13 people and wounding dozens. The Pakistani Taliban claimed
responsibility.
Also this week, suspected militants attacked the offices of World Vision,
a U.S.-based Christian aid group, in the northwest district of Mansehra,
killing six Pakistani employees, while a bombing at a small, makeshift movie
theater in the northwest city of Peshawar killed four people.
Rana Sanaullah Khan, the law minister for Punjab state, where Lahore is
located, said the renewed attacks are a "sign of desperation" by the
militants.
"We broke their networks. That's why they have not been able to strike
for a considerable time," he said.
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But the attacks show that the loose network of insurgents angry with
Islamabad for its alliance with the U.S. retain the ability to
strike throughout Pakistan despite pressure from army offensives and
American missile strikes against militant targets.
The violence also comes amid signs of a Pakistani crackdown on
Afghan Taliban and al-Qaida operatives using its soil. Among the
militants known to have been arrested is the Afghan Taliban's No. 2
commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.
The Pakistani Taliban, meanwhile, are believed to have lost their top
commander, Hakimullah Mehsud, in a U.S. missile strike in January. The group
has denied Mehsud is dead but has failed to prove he's still alive.
Militant attacks in Pakistan frequently target security forces, though
civilian targets have not escaped.
During the bloody wave of attacks that began in October -- coinciding with
the army's ground offensive against the Pakistani Taliban in the South
Waziristan tribal area -- Lahore was hit several times.
In mid-October, three groups of gunmen attacked three security facilities
in the eastern city, a rampage that left 28 dead. Twin suicide bombings at a
market there in December killed around 50 people.
[Associated
Press; By BABAR DOGAR and MUNIR AHMED]
Ahmed reported from Islamabad. Associated Press Writer Asif Shahzad also
contributed to this report from Islamabad.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.
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