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Pakistan: Lahore Suicide Bombing Rises
Pakistan in Mourning as Toll From Lahore Suicide Bombing Rises
LAHORE, Pakistan — Shock and grief enveloped Pakistan on Monday as the official death toll from a suicide attack in Lahore a day earlier rose to 69, with 341 people wounded.
The local news media put the number of people killed at 71.
Police investigators said a suicide bomber had detonated explosives in a vest during the evening rush hour on Sunday at Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, one of the largest public parks in this eastern city.
Jamaat-e-Ahrar, a splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that it had targeted Christians. Pakistani officials were skeptical about the claim, as most of those killed and wounded were Muslims. But because Sunday was Easter, a large number of Christian families had come to the park.
Years of Terror in Pakistan
The suicide bombing in Lahore, Pakistan, on Sunday is only one of dozens of attacks that have killed hundreds of civilians in Pakistan in recent years, with the Taliban or its splinter groups claiming responsibility for many.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif arrived in Lahore on Monday morning and visited Jinnah Hospital to show solidarity with the victims. He said he was deeply grieved and vowed to bring the culprits to justice.
Later, he met with senior government officials and pledged to eliminate terrorism.
“Our resolve as a nation and as a government is getting stronger, and the cowardly enemy is trying for soft targets,” Mr. Sharif said during the meeting. “Our goal is not only to eliminate terror infrastructure but also the extremist mind-set, which is a threat to our way of life.”
Lt. Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa, a military spokesman, said on Monday that intelligence raids had been carried out in three cities in Punjab Province, of which Lahore is the capital, after the attack, and that a “number of terrorists and facilitators were arrested.” However, he gave no further details about the identities of those arrested or whether they were connected to Sunday’s bombing.
Parking lot where bomb went off Lahore Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park University of the Punjab Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park 500 feet 4 miles By The New York Times
According to hospital sources, 252 people had been admitted to hospitals in Lahore by 10 a.m. on Monday, and 89 had been discharged. Of the wounded, 26 were in critical condition, officials said.
An initial police report said that four young men had been approached by a police officer near the entrance to the park on Sunday evening. Three of them managed to escape, but the fourth ran through the gate and detonated his explosives.
Lahore, widely considered the cultural and political capital of Pakistan, appeared to be in mourning on Monday. Most of the commercial centers and shopping areas were closed, and security forces were on high alert throughout the city.
Separately, at least 2,000 protesters continued a sit-in outside Parliament in the nation’s capital, Islamabad.
The protesters had rampaged through the city on Sunday after holding a rally in neighboring Rawalpindi to express support for Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, a former police guard who was executed on Feb. 29 for the 2011 killing of a governor, Salmaan Taseer. Mr. Taseer had called for changes to the country’s blasphemy laws, saying they were being used to persecute religious minorities.
To hard-line Islamists and religious parties, any change to the blasphemy laws is unacceptable, and they have campaigned violently against such proposals, portraying Mr. Qadri as a hero.
On Monday, the protesters made a raft of demands to the government. They included declaring Mr. Qadri an official martyr, imposition of Sharia, the legal code of Islam, in Pakistan, and the immediate execution of all those convicted of blasphemy.
District officials in Islamabad and leaders of the protesters were in negotiations Monday afternoon to end the sit-in. However, political analysts said they expected a protracted standoff, because the government was unlikely to accede to the demands.
Army troops had been deployed in Islamabad to secure the Parliament and other important buildings, including the headquarters of the Supreme Court and a large complex of apartments for members of Parliament.
The attack in Lahore, which is also Mr. Sahrif’s political stronghold, has drawn new attention to the government’s efforts to stem terrorism in the country and has renewed calls for action against militant groups in Punjab.
Mr. Sharif and his younger brother, Shahbaz Sharif, the chief minister of Punjab, have resisted calls for an army operation in the province.
Senior police officials have also refused to consider military action, saying that the provincial police are capable of handling the militants.
Critics have faulted the government’s handling of protests in the wake of Mr. Qadri’s execution. Omar R. Quraishi, a senior journalist based in the port city of Karachi, said the government’s policy of letting pro-Qadri supporters vent their fury seemed to have backfired.
“Calling in the army to re-establish peace in Islamabad is a sign of the government’s inability to govern effectively,” Mr. Quraishi said.
© 2016 The New York Times Company
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