Suicide attacks on Pakistan shrine kill 43

LAHORE: Terror struck Pakistan’s cultural hub of Lahore as a pair of suicide bombers attacked a famous Sufi shrine packed with thousands of worshippers, killing at least 43 people, including women and children, and injuring 180 others in the latest in a slew of attacks across the country.

The blasts occurred late on Thursday night in quick succession at the Data Darbar shrine of Sufi saint Syed Abul Hassan bin Usman bin Ali al-Hajweri revered by millions of people.

Though initial reports had said the shrine was targeted by three suicide attackers, SSP Chaudhry Shafiq Ahmed on Friday stated that two bombers were involved in the assault.

One blew himself up in the shrine’s courtyard while another detonated his explosive vest in the basement in an area where people perform ablutions.

Salman Kazmi, a senior official at Mayo Hospital, said 43 bodies had been received at the city’s only morgue. Several of the injured succumbed to their wounds in the hospital on Friday.

Another 180 people were injured in one of the most devastating attacks witnessed in Lahore, which has been increasingly targeted by pro-Taliban militants in recent months.

Doctors described the condition of more than 20 of the injured as serious. There was no claim of responsibility for the attack but the Taliban and other militant groups consider Sufism — a mystical movement comprising both Shias and Sunnis that spreads the message of Islam through music, poetry and dancing — and the visiting of its shrines as heretical.

The Taliban have also targeted Sufi shrines in northwest Pakistan in the past. Dramatic CCTV footage aired on TV channels showed the suicide bombers rushing into the shrine complex after evading police guards and volunteers deployed at a gate.

One bomber, clad in a white shalwar-kurta with a green cloth wrapped around his head, was seen running through a crowd of people in the basement moments before an orange flash and clouds of smoke and dust filled the frame at about 10.50 pm on Thursday night.

The second bomber exploded himself minutes later in the courtyard, where thousands of worshippers were present.