30 die, 170 injured in twin blasts: provincial FIA Headquarters in Lahore targeted

At least 30 people died and over 170 injured, 20 of them seriously, when two powerful explosions ripped through the provincial metropolis on Tuesday morning. Up to 24 people, including a dozen Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials, died in the powerful blast at the FIA Office on Temple Road.
Another four died in another explosion in Model Town, leaving three injured. Reports say the death toll could climb. The bomb at the FIA building happened at 9.22am when a suicide bomber drove in a vehicle loaded with explosive material and blew himself up. Police claim they found his head at a nearby house. Pool of blood and human flesh was seen on the ground outside the eight-storey building with clothes and shoes abandoned by people when they ran off.
The explosion was so powerful that the FIA building was badly mangled, smashing nearby buildings' windowpanes, including those on the Mall. Mall and Hall Roads shopkeepers then closed their shops in protest, followed by a mob of youth marching near the FIA office, chanting anti-government slogans.
After the blast, panicked residents fearing a tremor came out of their homes. The bomb left 45 school children in the nearby localities, including those near the Cathedral and Sacred Heart Schools, injured. They were taken to hospital but treated and discharged. All schools in the nearby localities also closed. Hospital sources said students located near the FIA building had been brought to the hospital with minor injuries, caused mostly by classroom window glass pieces.
Ambulances of Rescue 1122 and Edhi reached the site and started shifting the injured to hospitals. Health Department sources said emergency was declared in all the city's hospitals. Up to 100 were brought to Gangaram, 60 to Mayo and 14 to the Services and rest to other hospitals.
A crowd thronged the Mayo and Gangaram Hospitals to offer blood though some had to be turned away because of overcrowding. Unconfirmed sources said 16 people died on the spot in the FIA office bomb alone and eight died of their injuries in different hospitals.
CCPO Malik Muhammad Iqbal claimed that a suicide bomber came in a car loaded with the explosive material and then blew himself up at the FIA Office. Nine other vehicles parked at the building also caught fire. Gas cylinders in these vehicles blew up creating a chain of fire.
The authorities say the bomb had badly damaged the FIA building and told the public to stay clear of the site. Rescue officials clearing debris said they found human organs. FIA Director Chaudhry Manzoor Hussain told reporters that the blast occurred near the FIA reception office, adding that all those present at the reception died instantly.
Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan and Nazim Mian Amer Mahmood visited the city hospitals. Some reports said the police seized security camera installed at the main gate of the FIA office. They said the explosion was so intense flattening the eight-storey FIA building housing 200 officials and 12 people on the sixth floor. Sources claimed there was also a foreign-funded Special Investigation Unit for terrorists in the building, which might have been the target.
Those who died in the FIA office bomb were identified as Amanat, Farooq, Iftikhar Awan, Pervaiz Masih, Waqar, Hashim, Ghafoor, Khawar and Abdul Ghafoor. The other bomb in Model Town F-Block claimed four lives, including two children, and left three others injured. The explosion completely demolished front of the building at 83-4 Model Town serving as the office of an advertising agency. The bomb also damaged the nearby servants' residential quarters and a house.
Two of those killed in Model Town were identified as Seemi, aged 8, and Muhammad Hussain, 10. Another victim was a woman whose identity rescue men were unable to ascertain. The fourth was suspected to be the suicide bomber himself.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Quaid Mian Nawaz Sharif and party president Shahbaz Sharif have condemned the double bombs, grieving the loss of lives and cancelling their engagements. "No religion permits such abominable acts against innocent lives, " the Sharif brothers said. "Terrorism and lawlessness are the foremost problems faced by the country, which can be resolved with democratic measures."
Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Parliamentary leader in the National Assembly Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and former federal minister Muhammad Ali Durrani also grieved.
Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy Information Secretary Munir Ahmad Khan has condemned the suicide bombings, saying it was a conspiracy against the Murree Declaration and democracy. Jamaat leaders, including Liaquat Baloch and Farid Piracha, also visited the FIA office. They said those involved in these criminal acts were conspirators against the country and the people of Pakistan.
Piracha launched a savage attack on President Pervez Musharraf, claiming that one person - in reference to the latter - had made the country insecure in his lust for power. "Everybody is feeling insecure and solution to problems confronting the country lies in President Musharraf quitting the office. The possibility of involvement of a foreign hand in such acts can never be ruled out," he added.
Irate crowds swarmed the FIA head office after the bomb went off, chanting slogans against President Musharraf and blamed him for the law and order. Traders and workers from the Hall and Mall shopping centres also gathered near Masjid Shuhada and vented their anger. The police used baton charge to greet the protestors re-assembling at the Regal Chowk and Shahrah-e-Quaid-e-Azam.