15 killed in suicide blasts targeting Shiites in Lahore, Karachi (Third Lead)

ISLAMABAD - At least 13 people, including a woman and four policemen, were killed and over 50 others injured in a suicide bomb attack in Lahore Tuesday evening during a religious procession of Shiite Muslims, while two people lost their lives in a police van explosion in the port city of Karachi, officials said.

An outfit called Fidayeen-i-Islam — a faction of banned militant group Taliban — has claimed responsibility for the Lahore attack.

Police said it was a suicide blast and that casualties may rise further, according to state-run PTV.

Lahore capital city police officer Aslam Tareen said police officials stopped a teenager outside the security cordon, who blew himself up in the thickly populated area of Bhatti gate in old Lahore.

A woman was among the victims in the blast that took place near the concluding point of the religious procession at the Kerbala Gamay Shah at Bhatti Gate, superintendent of Mayo Hospital, Zahid Pervez, was quoted as saying by Geo News.

Sources told Xinhua that the blast took place in a vehicle near the religious procession in the Urdu Bazar area.

Tareen told media persons that a 14-year-old boy had tried to enter into the area where hundreds of people were present for the religious procession.

When police stopped him for checking, he threw a handbag near a government vehicle and then exploded his vest filled with explosive material, he said.

Tareen confirmed that four police personnel have been killed in the blast.

Rescue operation was under way and it was premature to say anything more at this stage, he said.

The religious congregation was part of the 967th birth anniversary celebrations of revered Shiite saint Data Ganj Bakhsh.

Participants of the congregation had assembled for evening prayers when the blast took place. Another congregation of the community was supposed to reach later in the night.

Samma TV channel, however, reported that a suicide bomber driving a car loaded with explosives material tried to enter into the religious procession. When he was stopped at a police check-post, he hit the police barrier and exploded the bomb.

Senior Superintendent of Police Rana Faisal said the bomber could not approach the procession due to the tight security cordon.

Police and security forces reached the blast spot and cordoned off the area. Ambulances are shifting the injured to hospitals.

Police detained one person from the blast site and took him for questioning.

Emergency has been declared at Mayo Hospital, Ganga Ram Hospital and Services Hospital.

More than five people were injured in the Karachi suicide blast in a mobile unit of Pakistan’s paramilitary force. The van caught fire after the blast in Malir area of the city, Xinhua reported.

According to Geo News, however, the blast occurred in a private car near the Kala Board area.

The blast was so powerful that nearby buildings were also partially damaged.

Karachi capital city police officer Fayyaz Leghari said the explosives were tied to a motorcycle, which went off, injuring many people.

Dunya TV reported that the suicide blast was carried out by a man in his early 20s.

The police mobile unit was patrolling the route the Shiite congregation was about to take.

A similar attack on Lahore’s Data Darbar shrine last year killed at least 40 people while another suicide blast targeting a Shiite congregation in Karachi also caused severe casualties.