Lahore
park bombing: authorities search for militants behind attack that
killed more than 70
Pakistani
Taliban faction Jamaat ul-Ahrar says Christians were target of bomb
that killed 72 and injured 280 in park thronged with families
Taha
Siddiqui in Islamabad
Sunday
27 March 2016 23.46 BST
Pakistani
authorities were on Monday searching for fighters from a Taliban
militant faction that claimed responsibility for the Easter suicide
bombing of a public park in Lahore that killed at least 72 people,
many of whom were thought to be children.
Many of the injured
were said to be in a critical condition.
The bomber blew
himself up near an entrance to Gulshan-e- Iqbal Park, close to a
children’s play area on Sunday evening. The sound of the explosion
was heard several kilometres away and eyewitnesses said there were
big crowds in the area because of the Easter holiday.
“We must bring the
killers of our innocent brothers, sisters and children to justice and
will never allow these savage inhumans to over-run our life and
liberty,” military spokesman Asim Bajwa said in a post on Twitter.
A faction of the
Pakistani Taliban, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, claimed responsibility for the
explosion, saying it was targeted at Christians celebrating Easter. A
spokesman for the group, Ehsanullah Ehsan, told the Guardian: “We
have carried out this attack to target the Christians who were
celebrating Easter. Also this is a message to the Pakistani prime
minister that we have arrived in Punjab [the ruling party’s home
province].” However the Punjab government denied the claim that the
bombing was aimed exclusively at Christians, as those in the park
were from all backgrounds.
“I saw body parts
everywhere, especially those of young children. It was quite
haunting, as many of the children’s rides were still operating,
while there were dead bodies lying all around them,” said Mohammad
Ali, a student who lives nearby and went to the park after hearing
the blast.
Kiran Tanveer,
another local resident, said: “There was a deafening noise. I
immediately thought it must be a blast. I went outside to see. I saw
injured people being taken and everyone running in all directions. It
was a complete chaos.”
Shortly after the
explosion, the area was cordoned off by law-enforcement agencies as
the army and ambulances also reached the scene.
Local police said
they had found one leg and the head of the suicide bomber. A police
spokesman said: “He was around 23 to 25 years old. Initial reports
suggest at least 20kg of explosives were used and the suicide jacket
contained nuts and bolts,” a police official told local media.
A woman injured in
the bomb blast is comforted by a relative at a hospital in Lahore.
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A woman injured in
the bomb blast is comforted by a relative at a hospital in Lahore.
Photograph: KM Chuadary/AP
An emergency was
declared in the city’s hospitals and an appeal for blood donations
made. Many family members were still looking for their loved ones
late into the night.
Senior police
official Haider Ashraf put the toll at 72 on Monday, saying at least
eight children were among the dead, though other sources estimated
that the proportion of children among the dead was much higher.
Pakistan’s prime
minister, Nawaz Sharif, cancelled a planned trip to the UK on Monday,
where he was scheduled to stop over before heading for the US. A
three-day mourning period was announced in Punjab province.
The chief of
Pakistan’s army, General Raheel Sharif, who is also in charge of
the country’s security policy, chaired a high-level meeting late on
Sunday night, which was attended by the heads of the military and
intelligence services.
The playground at
Gulshan-e-Iqbal park in Lahore
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The playground at
Gulshan-e-Iqbal park in Lahore Photograph: Geolocation
Many Christians have
accused the government of not doing enough to protect them, saying
politicians are quick to offer condolences after an attack but slow
to take any real steps to improve security.
The US National
Security Council spokesman, Ned Price, said: “The United States
condemns in the strongest terms today’s appalling terrorist attack
in Lahore, Pakistan. This cowardly act in what has long been a scenic
and placid park has killed dozens of innocent civilians and left
scores injured.”
While Lahore was
reeling from the attack, Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, witnessed
riots erupting outside the parliament house. Supporters of Mumtaz
Qadri, who was hanged last month for the murder of Punjab’s
governor Salman Taseer in 2011, are staging a sit-in outside the
parliament and have given the Pakistani government a list of demands,
the foremost of which is the immediate execution of Aasia Bibi, a
Christian woman who is on death row charged with blasphemy.
Qadri, Taseer’s
bodyguard, shot him over the governor’s call to reform the
blasphemy law and his support for Aasia Bibi.
Safdar Dawar
contributed reporting on this from Peshawar
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