2 blasts kill at least 43 at Pakistan bazaar

ISLAMABAD — Two suicide bomb blasts spaced just 15 seconds apart rocked the eastern city of Lahore on Friday, killing at least 43 people and sparking fears of a new wave of militant violence in Pakistan’s major cities following a period of relative calm.

The attacks targeted two military vehicles near a
crowded market known as the RA bazaar. The bombers detonated vests
filled with explosives after walking up to the vehicles, said Lahore police official Chaudhry Shafiq. More than 95 people were injured in the explosions.

The twin blasts come just four days after a suicide car bomb attack at a building that houses terrorism investigators in Lahore killed at least 13 people and wounded 80 others.

Lahore, Pakistan’s
second-largest city and its cultural capital, was the scene of some of
the deadliest bombing attacks in the country last year, including
blasts in December that ripped through a crowded bazaar and killed 48
people, and the commando-style raid in May on the provincial
headquarters of the nation’s spy agency that killed at least 27 people.

Those attacks came amid several waves of violence
carried out by Islamic extremists in retaliation against military
offensives that routed Taliban militants from the volatile Swat Valley region and sections of the tribal areas along the Afghan border. The violence killed more than 600 people.

However, the success of the offensives, coupled with
U.S. drone attacks that have killed scores of militants and two
Pakistani Taliban leaders, had recently given Pakistanis confidence
that they were gaining the upper hand against militants whose forces
last spring had moved to within 60 miles of the capital, Islamabad. A new wave of suicide bombings in Pakistan’s major cities could undermine that recent momentum.

“The nation and its security forces need to keep morale high,” said Rana Sanaullah, law minister for Punjab province, where Lahore is located. “We can only win this fight with unity.”

The attacks Friday occurred at the Lahore
Cantonment, a heavily guarded military district that includes offices
and apartments for retired and active army personnel as well as rows of
shops and market stalls.

The military vehicles targeted in the attacks
belonged to the Garrison Security Force, a unit responsible for
securing the district. The RA bazaar is the district’s commercial area.
Eleven of the dead were Pakistani military personnel, said Punjab
Police Inspector General Tariq Saleem Dogar.

Muhammad Shahid, 20, said he was standing only a few yards away when the blasts shook the neighborhood.

“I heard firing after the first blast, and then
suddenly there was another huge blast,” Shahid said. “I saw 20 to 25
bodies lying on the ground. There was blood everywhere. People were
crying and running away in panic.”

Shopkeeper Muhammad Hafeez heard
the blasts from inside his shop about 200 yards from the site. “Both
blasts were huge,” he said. “I also heard gunshots. We stayed inside
our shops out of fear, then later shut everything down.”

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