Page 34 - 072517

Groton Daily Independent
Tuesday, July 25, 2017 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 025 ~ 34 of 38
Pakistan: Suicide bombing in Lahore kills 26, wounds 54 By ZAHEERUDDIN BABAR, Associated Press
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — A suicide bomber struck near a police team in the eastern city of Lahore Monday kill- ing at least 26 and wounding another 54, many of them police of cers. An outlawed Taliban faction claimed re- sponsibility.
Senior police of cer Haider Ashraf said a suicide bomber on a motorcycle targeted police guarding a demolition site at Kot Lakhpat’s vegetable market on the outskirts of Lahore.
Ashraf said it was believed earlier that the bomb was in a car, but it was later discovered that the vehicle belonged to a police of cer, among the eight of cers killed.
He said many of 54 wounded are po- licemen and several bystanders were woundedbytheimpactofthepower- fulblast.Ashrafaddedthatnearthe blast site a high rise building houses important information technology of- cesbuttheapparenttargetwasthe police gathering.
Pakistani rescue workers remove a body from the site of a deadly bombing in the eastern city of Lahore, Paki- stan,Monday,July24,2017.Pakistaniof cialssaidthat thesuicidemotorcyclebombingkilledover20peopleand wounded more than 20 others at a vegetable market in the neighborhood of Kot Lakhpat on Lahore’s outskirts. (APPhoto/K.M.Chaudary)
The outlawed militant group Tehrik-e-Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, con rming they used a suicide bomber on a motorcycle.
Rana Sanaullah, the home minister of eastern Punjab province of which Lahore is the capital, said anti- state elements who want to see instability in the country were behind the attack.
“No matter what name they use, these terrorists are one but they cannot demoralize the Pakistani na- tion,” said Sanaullah.
Malik Mohammad Ahmed, a spokesman for the Punjab government, said the blast occurred near the secretariat of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif but that he was not in the of ce oat the time.
Sharif in a statement condemned the attack and called for the best possible medical service for the survivors.
The U.N. Security Council condemned “the heinous and cowardly terrorist attack” in the strongest terms and underlined the obligation of all countries to help Pakistan bring those responsible to justice. Members reiterated that “any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjusti able.”
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned attack in Lahore and called for those responsible to be brought to justice, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.
“He supports the efforts of the government of Pakistan to ght terrorism and violent extremism with full respect for international human rights norms and obligations,” Haq said.
Lahore has faced scores of terror attacks in recent years. A suicide bombing earlier this year killed 16 police on a busy road while another killed over 70 people during Easter last year.
Elsewhere in Pakistan Monday, gunmen riding on a motorcycle in Karachi opened re on traf c police of cers, killing one and critically wounding another, said Rao Anwar, a senior counterterrorism police of cer. Anwar said the gunmen also snatched away a dead of cer’s ri e and red on another nearby police
patrol but caused no casualties.