Lahore, May 8
A teenage Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up outside one of Pakistan's oldest and most revered Sufi shrines in Lahore on Wednesday, killing at least 10 persons, including five police commandos, and injuring 25 others as the country marks Ramzan.
The powerful blast took place around 8.45 am outside Gate number 2 of the 11th-century Data Darbar shrine, the largest Sufi shrine in South Asia, where the elite police personnel were deployed for security, police said. A CCTV footage showed that a teenage boy wearing black salwar kameez and a suicide vest came closer to the vehicle of elite force and blew himself up. "The suicide bomber is about 15 years old and made no suspected movement before blowing himself up," Lahore police spokesperson Syed Mubashir said.
He said over 20 injured are being treated at the Mayo Hospital Lahore, of them the condition of six is said to be critical. He said two suspects have been taken into custody.
The Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JeA), a breakaway faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed the responsibility for the attack. “We also heard that Jamaatul Ahrar had claimed the responsibility of the Lahore blast on social media but we can’t confirm it before investigation,” Mubashir said.
Punjab Inspector General Police Arif Nawaz said it was a suicide attack and the target was the vehicle of the elite force that was stationed outside the shrine. He said the suicide bomber came closer to the police vehicle and blew himself up, killing five of them and injuring four others critically. — PTI
from The Tribune http://bit.ly/2vM2FUj
via Today’s News Headlines
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