Police say bomb explodes in eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, casualties feared

Police say bomb hits Pakistani city of Lahore

ISLAMABAD — A bomb blast shook the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Friday, the second attack there this week and an indication that militants may be stepping up assaults on the country after weeks of relative calm.

Casualties were feared in the blast, which was followed by gunshots, police official Naveed Hassan said.

The area struck was RA Bazaar, a residential and commercial neighborhood where several army and security agencies have facilities. Pakistani TV channels showed security forces swarming the area as bystanders rushed the injured into ambulances.

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 Pakistan over the last several years, including a series of strikes that began in October and killed some 600 people in several weeks in apparent retaliation for an army offensive against the insurgents along the Afghan border.

More recent attacks had been smaller and confined to remote northwest regions near Afghanistan, but on Monday, a suicide car bomber struck a building in Lahore where police interrogated high-value suspects. At least 13 died and dozens were wounded.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the Monday strike in a telephone call to an Associated Press reporter.

On Wednesday, suspected militants armed with assault rifles and a homemade bomb attacked the northwest Pakistan offices of World Vision, a U.S.-based Christian aid group. Six Pakistani employees were killed in the attack in Mansehra district.

This week’s attacks also come amid reports of a Pakistani crackdown on Afghan Taliban and al-Qaida operatives using its soil. Among the militants said to have been arrested is the Afghan Taliban’s No. 2 commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.

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 South Waziristan tribal area — Lahore was hit several times.

In mid-October, three groups of gunmen attacked three separate security facilities in the eastern city, a rampage that left 28 dead. Twin suicide bombings at a market in Lahore in December killed nearly 50 people.