Taliban / Sipah-e-Sahaba attack Moon Market in Lahore. At least 37 killled.
Terrorists belonging to Pakistani Taliban / Sipah-e-Shaba attacked Moon Market in Iqbal Town suburb of Lahore killing at least 36 innocent citizens and injuring more than 100.
It may be recalled that Taliban spokespersons in Pakistani media (Dr Shahid Masood, Ansar Abbasi, Hamid Mir etc) usually claim that Taliban are innocent, pious Muslims who do not have anything to do with such attacks. According to PTUJ (Pakistani Taliban Union of Journalists), the state of Pakistan must have a dialogue with the Taliban terrorists by conceding to their demand for implementing the Wahhabi version of Islam and for promoting an international jihadi and sectarian militant agenda.
Here are the pictures of key members of Hizbut-Tahrir / PTUJ who are supporting the Talibanic terrorism in Pakistani media:
Lahore twin blasts kill 37, injure 100
Samaa TV / Al Jazeerah/ Geo TV
LAHORE: Two blasts killed 37 persons and injured about 100 others in the Moon market, Iqbal Town, Lahore Monday.
The blasts happened behind the National Bank, a site where children’s toys and clothes are sold. The site is on fire right now. Rescue team 1122 has reached the site.
Investigative teams have reached the site of the blast. The nature of the blast is not determined yet.
Law enforcement agencies have cordoned off the area.
Several more casualties are feared as the site is generally crowded with children and women.
The fire is enveloping the surrounding buildings too. Seventy to seventy-five percent of the fire has been controlled so far. The narrow streets of the area are making it hard to control the fire more efficiently.
The Jinnah Hospital and Sheikh Zayed Hospital have imposed emergency.
The electricity of the area has been cut off after the blasts.
This is the third terrorist activity in the country today. All three were carried out in the provincial capitals. One blast in Quetta injured 8 persons and one in Peshawar killed 10 Monday. SAMA
Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan, reporting from the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, said: “This marketplace would have been packed. It’s a place where families go to socialise. This underscores, yet again, how fragile and dangerous the situation in Pakistan is.
“Reports say there have been two separate blasts, but the pictures that we’re seeing on local television here show mass fires breaking out … it is likely the death toll will rise.”
Kamal Hyder, Al Jazeera’s correspondent also in Islamabad, said: “Immediately after the explosion, the entire area was plunged into darkness and rescue teams went in as fires burned throughout the shops.
“This was the third attack in the country, with one earlier in Peshawar, and a smaller one in Quetta.”
At least 36 people were killed and more than 100 wounded on Monday when twin blasts ripped through a busy market in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore, engulfing it in flames, officials said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but cultural hub Lahore has frequently been targeted by Taliban militants waging a two-and-a-half year insurgency that has killed more than 2,600 people in Pakistan.
“There were two blasts, at least 36 people were killed,” doctor Rizwan Naseer, the head of Lahore’s rescue service, told reporters. He put the number of wounded at 95.
City police chief Muhammad Pervez Rathore said the bombs were apparently planted at Moon Market and detonated remotely, and put the death toll slightly lower, while bodies were still being pulled from the rubble.
“Twenty-seven people are confirmed dead but the death toll may rise. A total of 137 people were injured,” he said. “The blasts knocked out the electricity. Fire engulfed the whole of the market.”
“We fear there are still dead bodies inside.”
The two fierce explosions struck about 30 metres (yards) apart, said city police official Shafiq Ahmad.
“There were two blasts with an interval of about 30 seconds. One was in front of a bank and one was in front of a police station,” he said.
Rana Sanaullah, law and home minister for Punjab province, said the bombs had been set off by remote-control and linked the attack to an anti-Taliban offensive under way near the border with Afghanistan.
“After the successful operation in Waziristan, the terrorists have started targeting innocent people, women and children,” he told reporters.
Pakistan TV stations showed footage of buildings in flames as rescue workers rushed to the chaotic scene and firemen struggled to put out the blaze.
Vehicles and shops were badly damaged in the Moon Market area in the centre of the city of nearly eight million people.
Also read BBC Urdu.com’s report: