Suicide bombing kills at least 12, wounds 35 in eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, police say

Suicide bomb kills 12, wounds 35 in Pakistani city

LAHORE, Pakistan — A suicide bomber targeting an army vehicle in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore killed 12 people Friday, police said. It was the second attack in the city this week, indicating militants may be stepping up assaults on the country after a period of relative calm.

Officials were sorting out whether it was a single or twin blast, which also wounded 35, including soldiers, police official Mohammad Riaz 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.

Eyewitness Afzal Awan said he saw several people, some missing limbs, lying in pools of blood.

“It was a big blast,” Awan told TV channels. “I saw smoke rising everywhere. 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 killed some 600 people in apparent retaliation for an army offensive 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.

Using its covert missile program, meanwhile, the U.S. has pursued al-Qaida and Taliban fighters in the northwest tribal belt in Pakistan. The Pakistani Taliban chief, Hakimullah Mehsud, is believed have been killed in one such missile attack in January, though the Taliban have denied it.

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.

Ahmed reported from Islamabad.