LAHORE – Gunmen attacked worshippers from a minority Muslim sect in two mosques of the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Friday, taking hostages and killing at least 70 people.
The gunmen opened fire shortly after Friday prayers and threw what could have been grenades at two Ahmadi mosques in residential neighbourhoods in Pakistan’s cultural capital.
Sajjad Bhutta, deputy commissioner of Lahore, said at least 70 people had been killed in the twin attacks on mosques in Garhi Shahu and Model Town. Seventy-eight people were injured.
The death toll at Garhi Shahu was higher, Mr Bhutta said, because three attackers blew themselves up with suicide vests packed with explosives when police tried to enter the building.
Police were still searching the area, as two attackers were still at large.
Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif said the incidents would generate greater resolve to combat extremism. “It is a reminder to the nation that Pakistan will achieve its destiny only after we get rid of the worst type of extremism and fundamentalism. The entire nation will fight this evil.”
He said one attacker had been arrested. Police in Model Town confirmed one gunmen had been arrested, and another killed.
There was no immediate admission of responsibility, but suspicion quickly fell on the Pakistani Taliban. Punjab’s law minister Rana Sanaullah said the arrested attacker was a teenage Pashtun, an ethnic group making up the majority in parts of northern Pakistan and Afghanistan. This, he said, indicated a link to the Pakistani tribal area of Waziristan, and strongly hinted at a Taliban link.
“The prayer leader was giving a sermon when we heard firing and blasts. Everybody stood up and then two gunmen barged into the mosque and sprayed bullets,” Fateh Sharif (19), a student, said from Model Town. “They had long beards, they were carrying rucksacks.”
Mr Bhutta said a suicide vest laden with explosives was recovered from the Model Town mosque, from which some attackers escaped. One fired at a television van before the area was made safe. “He was young, clean-shaven. He sprayed bullets at our van while fleeing the scene,” Rabia Mehmood, a reporter for Express Television, said.
Witnesses said the assaults were launched shortly after prayers. – (Reuters)