Police say explosion rocks police agency building in eastern Pakistan, killing 8

Blast hits police building in Pakistan, 8 dead

LAHORE, Pakistan — A suicide car bomber struck a building where police interrogate high-value suspects in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore on Monday, killing at least eight people, officials said.

Some 45 others were wounded in what appeared to be the biggest explosion to strike the nuclear-armed, U.S.-allied country in several weeks, breaking a relative lull in violence.

No group immediately claimed responsibility, but suspicion immediately fell on the Pakistani Taliban and allied militant groups responsible for a wave of attacks that killed more than 600 people late last year — a stretch of violence that appeared to be retaliation for a military offensive against insurgents along the Afghan border.

The explosion went off outside the Punjab province police’s Special Investigation Agency building, police official Zulfikar Hameed said. TV footage showed a huge crater in the ground where the blast seemed to have originated.

“This place was used to interrogate important suspects, but presently there was none such suspect, but more then 40 staff were manning the place,” Lahore police chief Pervez Rathore said.

Lahore government official Khusro Pervez said eight people had died and several of the wounded were in critical condition.

It appeared the suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into the perimeter wall, according to police official Chaudhry Shafiq.

Hospital official Jawed Akram said the dead included at least one woman and a young girl. “People are coming with multiple wounds, many with head injuries and broken limbs,” he said.

Parts of the brick building appeared to have collapsed, and there were piles of bricks and metal everywhere at the site, the footage showed. Other nearby buildings, including a mosque, also were damaged. Ambulances rushed to the area.

Militants have frequently targeted security forces and installations throughout Pakistan, though civilian targets also have come under attack.

(This version CORRECTS that it was Punjab police unit, not federal unit that was hit.)