55 killed, 120 injured in Lahore suicide blast

KABUL-India border crossing on Sunday evening.

The bomber struck crowds returning after the flag-lowering ceremony, a daily colourful show that attracts thousands of people on both the sides at the Wagah border crossing near the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore.

Ranger personnel, women and children were among the dead and wounded, police said, confirming it was a suicide blast.  Ball bearings were found at the scene.

Two splinter Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) groups claimed the attack. A TTP faction loyal to its dead chief Hakimullah Mehsud claimed it carried out the blast to avenge Mehsud’s killing in a US drone strike last year.

But a newly-formed Jamat-ul-Ahrar faction said they were behind the blast. The faction broke away from the main TTP leadership in September.

Its spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said the attack was revenge for those killed in North Waziristan on the Afghan border in the ongoing military operation. They would soon release video footage of the attack, Ehsan said.

A third militant faction, called Jundullah, also asserted responsibility for the attack in claims run on Pakistani TV channels.

The military’s media wing, ISPR, says more than 1,100 militants and 100 soldiers have been killed since the start of the operation and more than 100 militants have surrendered.

Indian Border Security Force officials said security had been stepped up along the Indian border and that their side was secure.

Sunday’s attack comes amid heightened tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours and high security alert in Pakistan for the festival of Ashura.

PAN Monitor/mud/ma

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