Senior police officers killed in Lahore bomb blast

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) – At least 11 people -- including two senior police officers -- were killed and over 70 injured when a suicide bomber struck in Pakistan’s northeastern Lahore city on Monday evening, officials and local media reported.

The blast occurred during a busy protest against pharmaceutical companies outside the state assembly of Punjab, of which Lahore is the capital.

Lahore’s security forces told reporters a city police chief, Zahid Gondal, was among the dead.

The deputy commissioner Lahore Sameer Ahmed Syed told reporters 11 people had died and 73 had been injured.

Among the injured were two journalists and several policemen.

Punjab law minister Rana Sanaullah told reporters the blast seemed to be the act of a suicide bomber.

Later, Jamat ul Ahrar (JUA) -- a splinter faction of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a consortium of Pakistani Taliban groups -- claimed the attack in a statement, saying the "suicide blast" was a joint act by the JUA, the TTP, and the Waziristan Mujahiddin, a little-known group.

Giant plumes of thick smoke and flames billowed upward as several vehicles parked across the road caught fire soon after the blast.

Blood-soaked caps, shoes, pieces of clothes and human flesh were strewn across the tree-lined site of the blast.

Local TV channels aired footage showing a man approaching some media vans parked near the protesters before the blast.

TV footage from the scene also showed policemen and protesters carrying injured people on their shoulders, running towards ambulances and private vehicles impeded by congested traffic.

The army has been called in to join the rescue operation.

-Condemnation

Lahore’s administration declared an emergency at the city’s hospitals and appealed for blood donations. Doctors fear a rise in the death toll as several of those injured are in a critical condition.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the terrorist attack. He ordered the police and intelligence services to flush out the terrorists involved in the attack.

Pakistan launched a full-scale military onslaught on the TTP and its allies in restive North Waziristan and adjoining tribal regions near Afghanistan border in June 2014.

The army claims to have killed over 5,000 suspected militants, whereas more than 700 troops have also been killed in clashes and landmine blasts during this period.

Pakistan’s military operation also displaced over a million tribesmen, mainly from North Waziristan. Of these, according to the army, over 80 percent have since returned to their homes.