Suicide attacks at Lahore Sufi shrine kill 38 (Third Lead)

LAHORE - At least 38 people were killed and more than 175 injured in double suicide bombings at a shrine in Lahore late Thursday, government officials said.

“There were two suicide bombings. We have found the severed heads of the attackers and the ball bearings used in the suicide vests,” the city’s civil administrator Khusro Parvez told reporters.

The bombers struck when thousands of worshippers were visiting the white marble mausoleum of 11th century saint Abul Hassan Ali Hajvery, commonly known as Data Ganj Baksh, for traditional Thursday prayers.

“The first bombing took place in the courtyard of the shrine. A few minutes later another suicide bomber blew himself up in the basement where people wash themselves before prayers,” said city police chief Aslam Tareen.

Television footage showed targeted parts of the sprawling shrine littered with bodies and blood.

Parvez said 38 people had been confirmed killed, while 175 wounded had so far been moved to various hospitals.

“Attacks on the shrine of a saint who was revered not only by Muslims but also the followers of other religions is condemnable.”

The enraged worshippers protested against the “insufficient security measures” and pelted stones at the police following the explosions. The police used tear gas to disperse the protesters who also set ablaze several vehicles.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Parvez said that “these were the same people who were behind recent attacks in Lahore”.

The Lahore, the cultural hub of Pakistan, has seen a series of bombings. More than 80 people were killed in gun-and-suicide attacks on two mosques of the minority Ahmadi sect in May.

More than 50 people died in twin suicide bombings near a military base in Lahore in March.

A group that claims to be associated with Al Qaeda and the Taliban has accepted responsibility for most of these attacks which also targeted the cultural events and music shops.

It was the first attack on a shrine in Lahore, the capital of the most populated Punjab province, even though the militants have targeted Sufi mausoleums in the restive northwestern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in recent years.

Many Islamic extremist groups follow a Takfiri ideology, a puritan interpretation of Islam, which considers those praying to the deceased saints as apostates.

A bombing in March last year severely damaged the shrine of Rehman Baba, a 17th-century Sufi saint and respected poet of the Pashtu language near Peshawar, the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, sparking vast condemnation of Taliban in Pakistan.