The Hindu : Front Page : Twin suicide attacks rock Lahore, 24 killed

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Twin suicide attacks rock Lahore, 24 killed

Nirupama Subramanian

Musharraf to convene National Assembly on March 17

— Photo: AFP

TERROR ATTACK: Rescue workers remove a victim from the building of the Federal Investigation Agency in Lahore on Tuesday after a powerful bomb explosion.

ISLAMABAD: Two near simultaneous suicide attacks ripped through Lahore on Tuesday morning, killing 24 people and wounding 170.

The incidents have deepened anxiety about the enormity of the security challenge to Pakistan and its new government that is still in the making.

Ending speculation of when he would convene the newly elected National Assembly to pave the way for government formation, President Pervez Musharraf announced that he had set the first session for March 17.

All eyes are now on the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) to announce the name of the Prime Minister. On Tuesday, party leader Asif Ali Zardari ended days of consultations with the PPP’s new parliamentarians.

Announcing the date for the National Assembly session during a convocation address at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics here, the retired General Musharraf said the two most important challenges facing the new government were terrorism and economic development.

Earlier, General Musharraf told The Washington Post that a confrontation between the presidency and Parliament would be disastrous for the country. He said political stability was a must for Pakistan and that he wanted to work with the new government for its full five-year term.

Tuesday’s first suicide attack took place around 9.15 a.m. at the seven-storeyed Punjab headquarters of the Federal Investigation Agency off the main Mall Road in Lahore.

Police said an explosives-laden van broke through the main gates and went off in the parking area close to the building.

About 100 people were in the building at the time, and 12 FIA employees were among those who died on the spot. The FIA’s main brief is to investigate economic offences but, of late, it has also taken up terrorism-related cases.

So powerful was the blast that portions of the building came down in a heap of rubble, and the remaining was declared unsafe. It is said to be the most powerful explosion in the wave of the terrorist attacks that hit Pakistan since November 2006.

Many other buildings in the crowded locality were also damaged in the impact. Children in a nearby school had to be evacuated. Some of them suffered injuries from flying debris.

The second blast took place minutes later at the other end of Lahore, in the Model Town residential area, where two men drove a car — also explosives-laden — into a house rented by an advertising agency and set it off. Three persons were killed and several injured. The powerful explosion left a deep crater at the site.

Both Mr. Zardari and Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan’s two most important political leaders, have homes in Model Town. Mr. Zardari’s house is said to be close to the place where the attack took place, but it is unclear who the bombers intended to target.

Angered by the attacks, people in some parts of the city took to the streets raising slogans against General Musharraf.

Australia tour off

PTI reports from Melbourne:

Australia on Tuesday scrapped its cricket tour of Pakistan barely a few hours after the Lahore blasts.

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