Thirty people were killed and over 200 others injured in three explosions at a Yaum-e-Ali procession here on Wednesday. The first blast of low intensity took place outside Karbala Gaamey Shah. Later, two suicide bombers blew themselves up in a crowd of thousands at Bhaati Chowk near Data Darbar. The blasts occurred within a span of thirty minutes after sunset.
Rescue teams rushed the injured, including women and children, to Mayo and Ganga Ram Hospitals. All the gates of Data Darbar were immediately closed after the blasts to avoid any untoward incident. Later, an angry mob set the Lower Mall police station on fire and burnt many police mobiles, private vehicles and motorcycles. They chanted slogans against the government.
Enraged people also caused damage to some vans of media and rescue teams. Police used tear gas and resorted to firing in air to control the surging crowd, but failed. As a result of which, rangers were called to control the situation. Commissioner Lahore Khusro Pervez confirmed at Mayo Hospital that more than 100 people had suffered injuries in blasts.
CCPO Lahore criticised the organisers for not following the procession plan as it had been decided that the procession would culminate before sunset. According to him, the suicide bombers took advantage of darkness. He claimed there were adequate security arrangements. A constable was also killed when he tried to stop a suicide bomber from joining the procession. Police also claimed to have arrested a suspect.
AGENCIES ADD: "The mourning procession had just ended when I heard three deafening explosions after brief intervals," Shahid Hussain, a mourner, said with tears rolling down his cheeks. People cried and beat their heads and chests at the site of the attacks, chanting slogans against the police and provincial government over their failure to protect the mourners, an AFP correspondent on the scene said. Injured people lay on the ground crying for help amid the remnants of the crowd, while ambulances drove in and out taking away the scores of wounded.
After the attacks, furious mourners also beat the bodies of two suicide bombers with sticks and shoes. "Twenty-five people were killed and over 180 others wounded in the three suicide attacks," a senior local administration official, Sajjad Bhutta, told AFP. "We have collected bodies of all the three bombers," he said, adding they were still collecting evidence from the site.
He admitted there may have been a lapse in security. A local rescue official, Fahim Jehanzeb, also confirmed the death toll. Top local administration official Khusro Pervez told reporters in Lahore: "The first blast took place immediately after the mourning procession ended, followed by the other two."
Pervez said the police were trying to secure other areas, as the mourners were currently scattered throughout the area known as Karbala Gamey Shah, where the traditional route of the mourning procession ends. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani strongly condemned the attacks and described them as "cowardly acts of terrorism".
"Those elements playing with the lives of innocent people would not escape the law of the land," an official statement quoted him as saying in Islamabad. The protestors also set SP City's as well as two private vehicles ablaze while the police at nearby SP City office resorted to aerial firing and tear-gas. Punjab government has called Rangers to maintain law and order in the city in the aftermath of the suicide attacks.
Punjab Rangers spokesman told APP that two companies have been deputed in the troubled areas of the city. Earlier, DIG operations Rao sardar Ali said first two suicide attacks took place at the police pickets installed to ensure security of the processionists adding a police official was the first amongst those who embraced martyrdom during the suicide attacks.
The DIG said police rendered meritorious services during the 'Yaum-e-Hazrat Ali' procession and 2500 cops were deputed to provide security. Police sources said that heads of two suiciders have been recovered from the site of the suicide attacks.
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