The Hindu : Front Page : 22 killed in Lahore suicide bombing

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Friday, Jan 11, 2008
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22 killed in Lahore suicide bombing

Nirupama Subramanian

Most of the dead were policemen

ISLAMABAD: A suicide bombing in Lahore on Thursday killed 22 people, mostly policemen, and left over 50 fighting for their lives in hospital.

The bombing, the latest in an unrelenting wave of terror attacks that began in late 2006, deepened the sense of gloom and uncertainty that has set in over Pakistan since the December 27 killing of Benazir Bhutto in a gun-and-bomb attack.

This is the first time in all these months that Lahore has fallen target to a terror attack. Panic and rumours of more bomb blasts gripped the city as emergency services and hospitals struggled to deal with the fallout.

Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said a red alert was sounded in all four provinces of the country following the incident.

The suicide bomber struck near the gates of the Lahore High Court, at a key intersection on the city’s Mall Road, minutes before an anti-government lawyers’ procession was to arrive there. On the court premises, members of the Lahore Bar Association were preparing to step out to receive the procession.

The police had been deployed in large numbers, and a barricade set up to stop the lawyers who were on their weekly Thursday protest seeking restoration of Iftikhar Chaudhary, who was removed as Chief Justice after the November 3 imposition of Emergency, and the other judges who were sacked with him.

Police officials said a man went up close to the barricades, and on being challenged, blew himself up. Television footage showed policemen’s bodies in their khakis and blue anti-riot vests and riot helmets lying scattered all over the road, several damaged vehicles, and a dead horse still attached to its mangled cart.

Inspector-General of Punjab Police Nasim Ahmed told journalists that the police were the intended target. He commended the policemen killed in the attack for their bravery, and said such attacks would not demoralise the force.

The suicide bombing has also increased the uncertainty surrounding the February 18 general elections.

Though apparently targeted at the police, the bombing in Lahore was a violent prelude to the month of Moharram, which sees rising Sunni-Shia tensions in Pakistan.

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