By AFP / Agencies, *Pakistan suicide bombers may be a new force* / *Crowd protests Taliban attack* - The Age - AustraliaSaturday, July 3, 2010
Lahore: Two suicide bombers have killed 42 people and injured more than 170 at the shrine of a Sufi saint in what could be the work of a dangerous new militant group, out to avenge a deadly army assault on a mosque in the nation's capital, Islamabad, three years ago.
Thousands of people were present at the shrine, dedicated to Hazrat Syed Ali bin Usman Hajweri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh, at the time of the attacks on Thursday night.
''It was a suicide bombing and we have found the heads of two suicide bombers,'' said Lahore police commissioner Khusro Pervez, adding that ''we are looking into the circumstances around how the bombers penetrated the area despite strict security''.
Lahore: Two suicide bombers have killed 42 people and injured more than 170 at the shrine of a Sufi saint in what could be the work of a dangerous new militant group, out to avenge a deadly army assault on a mosque in the nation's capital, Islamabad, three years ago.
Thousands of people were present at the shrine, dedicated to Hazrat Syed Ali bin Usman Hajweri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh, at the time of the attacks on Thursday night.
''It was a suicide bombing and we have found the heads of two suicide bombers,'' said Lahore police commissioner Khusro Pervez, adding that ''we are looking into the circumstances around how the bombers penetrated the area despite strict security''.
There were no immediate claims of responsibility, but Pakistan has been hit by a wave of deadly attacks since its military started operations against Islamist militants in the country's north-west last year, along the Afghan border that Washington calls al-Qaeda's global headquarters.
There are now fears that deeply religious Pakistanis may also have been radicalised by the July 2007 decision to storm Islamabad's Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, and that this new ''Ghazi Force'' may be behind several major attacks previously blamed on the Pakistani Taliban.
A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban denied any role in the attack.
''We condemn this brutal act. Our target is very clear and we only attack police, army and other security personnel,'' Azam Tariq, a spokesman for Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan said, speaking from an undisclosed location.
''We are not responsible for these attacks … you know we do not attack public places.''
The Lahore attack was the second assault on the tomb of a Sufi saint, after militants blew up the Rehman Baba shrine in Peshawar in March 2009.
In May, militants wearing suicide vests burst into two prayer halls of the minority Ahmadi sect in two neighbourhoods of Lahore and killed 82 worshippers.
On January 1 more than 100 people were killed at a volleyball game in Bannu, in Pakistan's north-west.
''Before the Lal Masjid, militants hadn't yet declared war on the state of Pakistan. That changed with Lal Masjid,'' said Zahid Hussain, author and terrorism expert.
The new group is said to be made up of relatives of students who died in the Red Mosque assault.
Private television stations broadcast vivid scenes of the 2007 assault, stunning the nation. Perhaps as a result, the Pakistani government is considering restricting media coverage of suicide bombings and military operations.
Under the changes, TV journalists could be jailed for up to three years and fined up to 10 million rupees ($A140,000) for broadcasting ''anything defamatory against the organs of the state''.
***
Crowd protests Taliban attack
Angry protesters have taken to the streets in Pakistan, burning tyres and condemning Taliban extremists, after two suicide attacks killed 43 people at a shrine in the eastern city of Lahore.
The carnage at the Sufi shrine on Thursday was caught on camera in dramatic CCTV footage showing the bombers and the blast which sent hundreds of panicked worshippers fleeing in all directions engulfed in clouds of white smoke.
Thousands of protesters in Lahore and other cities demonstrated on Friday against the attack on the shrine dedicated to Sufi saint Hazrat Syed Ali bin Usman Hajweri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh.
Close ally the United States said the "vicious" attack showed militants' disregard for Pakistani people.
"This senseless act of violence demonstrates the terrorists' blatant disregard for the lives of the Pakistani people and their disrespect for the sanctity of Pakistan's places of worship," said State Department spokesman Mark Toner.
The United Nations said Secretary General Ban Ki-moon "strongly condemns the attack", adding: "The deliberate targeting of a crowded place of worship makes this particularly vicious."
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said the government is "committed to eradicate the menace of terrorism at all costs".
Lahore's administration chief Sajjad Bhutta told AFP that the death toll stands at 43 with 112 people in hospital.
Protesters burned tyres outside the shrine before noon prayers and more than 5000 people, mostly followers of the saint, later staged a rally in Lahore, while similar demonstrations were held in other cities across the country.
Participants at a rally in Multan wearing green caps and turbans accused Taliban militants of trying to destroy religious harmony in Pakistan.
Pakistan's Taliban, which has been instrumental in a wave of bloody attacks blamed on Islamist militants over the past three years, denied it was involved in the bombings.
The Sunni Tehreek movement announced a nationwide general strike for Saturday in protest against the attacks.
"It will be a complete and peaceful strike," senior party leader Hanif Tayyab told reporters after a rally in Karachi attended by more than 1000 people.
Most bazaars and markets remained closed on Friday and large numbers of police were on patrol in Lahore, considered a playground for Pakistan's elite and home to many top brass in the military and intelligence community.
More than 3400 people have been killed in a three-year bombing campaign by Islamist extremists to avenge Pakistani military operations and the government's alliance with the US over the war in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Thousands of people were at the centuries-old shrine when the bombers blew themselves up, engulfing the site in a huge cloud of smoke and leaving the white marble floor splattered with blood, body parts and people's belongings.
"I saw dead bodies and injured people lying on the floor in pools of blood," said one witness.
Authorities said they had found the heads of two suicide bombers, who wore the green turbans of Sufi followers, and were investigating how they had managed to penetrate the area despite strict security measures.
The CCTV footage showed a guard chasing one of the bombers just moments before he set off his explosives belt.
"We were searching everyone walking through the gate. One bomber crossed the gate and a security guard ran to catch him because he was suspicious but in the meantime he blew himself up," Rao Fazal-ur-Rehman, an administrator at the shrine, told AFP.
After escaping much of the bloodshed in other parts of Pakistan in recent years, Lahore has increasingly suffered, with around 265 people killed in nine attacks since March last year.
In May suspected Sunni Muslim militants wearing suicide vests burst into two Ahmadi prayer halls in Lahore and killed 82 worshippers.
Sufism is a mystical movement, which includes both Shi'ites and Sunnis, that spreads the message of Islam through music, poetry and dancing. Radical groups consider it un-Islamic.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague branded the attacks a "vicious and inhuman act".
"Britain stands alongside the people and government of Pakistan against those who commit such appalling atrocities," Hague said.
European Union foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said the incident showed the scale of the extremist threat in Pakistan.
Picture: Pakistani Sunni Muslims shout slogans during a protest in Karachi against the suicide bomb attacks on the shrine of Muslim Sufi saint Hazrat Syed Ali bin Usman Hajweri. Photo: AFP
There are now fears that deeply religious Pakistanis may also have been radicalised by the July 2007 decision to storm Islamabad's Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, and that this new ''Ghazi Force'' may be behind several major attacks previously blamed on the Pakistani Taliban.
A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban denied any role in the attack.
''We condemn this brutal act. Our target is very clear and we only attack police, army and other security personnel,'' Azam Tariq, a spokesman for Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan said, speaking from an undisclosed location.
''We are not responsible for these attacks … you know we do not attack public places.''
The Lahore attack was the second assault on the tomb of a Sufi saint, after militants blew up the Rehman Baba shrine in Peshawar in March 2009.
In May, militants wearing suicide vests burst into two prayer halls of the minority Ahmadi sect in two neighbourhoods of Lahore and killed 82 worshippers.
On January 1 more than 100 people were killed at a volleyball game in Bannu, in Pakistan's north-west.
''Before the Lal Masjid, militants hadn't yet declared war on the state of Pakistan. That changed with Lal Masjid,'' said Zahid Hussain, author and terrorism expert.
The new group is said to be made up of relatives of students who died in the Red Mosque assault.
Private television stations broadcast vivid scenes of the 2007 assault, stunning the nation. Perhaps as a result, the Pakistani government is considering restricting media coverage of suicide bombings and military operations.
Under the changes, TV journalists could be jailed for up to three years and fined up to 10 million rupees ($A140,000) for broadcasting ''anything defamatory against the organs of the state''.
***
Crowd protests Taliban attack
Angry protesters have taken to the streets in Pakistan, burning tyres and condemning Taliban extremists, after two suicide attacks killed 43 people at a shrine in the eastern city of Lahore.
The carnage at the Sufi shrine on Thursday was caught on camera in dramatic CCTV footage showing the bombers and the blast which sent hundreds of panicked worshippers fleeing in all directions engulfed in clouds of white smoke.
Thousands of protesters in Lahore and other cities demonstrated on Friday against the attack on the shrine dedicated to Sufi saint Hazrat Syed Ali bin Usman Hajweri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh.
Close ally the United States said the "vicious" attack showed militants' disregard for Pakistani people.
"This senseless act of violence demonstrates the terrorists' blatant disregard for the lives of the Pakistani people and their disrespect for the sanctity of Pakistan's places of worship," said State Department spokesman Mark Toner.
The United Nations said Secretary General Ban Ki-moon "strongly condemns the attack", adding: "The deliberate targeting of a crowded place of worship makes this particularly vicious."
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said the government is "committed to eradicate the menace of terrorism at all costs".
Lahore's administration chief Sajjad Bhutta told AFP that the death toll stands at 43 with 112 people in hospital.
Protesters burned tyres outside the shrine before noon prayers and more than 5000 people, mostly followers of the saint, later staged a rally in Lahore, while similar demonstrations were held in other cities across the country.
Participants at a rally in Multan wearing green caps and turbans accused Taliban militants of trying to destroy religious harmony in Pakistan.
Pakistan's Taliban, which has been instrumental in a wave of bloody attacks blamed on Islamist militants over the past three years, denied it was involved in the bombings.
The Sunni Tehreek movement announced a nationwide general strike for Saturday in protest against the attacks.
"It will be a complete and peaceful strike," senior party leader Hanif Tayyab told reporters after a rally in Karachi attended by more than 1000 people.
Most bazaars and markets remained closed on Friday and large numbers of police were on patrol in Lahore, considered a playground for Pakistan's elite and home to many top brass in the military and intelligence community.
More than 3400 people have been killed in a three-year bombing campaign by Islamist extremists to avenge Pakistani military operations and the government's alliance with the US over the war in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Thousands of people were at the centuries-old shrine when the bombers blew themselves up, engulfing the site in a huge cloud of smoke and leaving the white marble floor splattered with blood, body parts and people's belongings.
"I saw dead bodies and injured people lying on the floor in pools of blood," said one witness.
Authorities said they had found the heads of two suicide bombers, who wore the green turbans of Sufi followers, and were investigating how they had managed to penetrate the area despite strict security measures.
The CCTV footage showed a guard chasing one of the bombers just moments before he set off his explosives belt.
"We were searching everyone walking through the gate. One bomber crossed the gate and a security guard ran to catch him because he was suspicious but in the meantime he blew himself up," Rao Fazal-ur-Rehman, an administrator at the shrine, told AFP.
After escaping much of the bloodshed in other parts of Pakistan in recent years, Lahore has increasingly suffered, with around 265 people killed in nine attacks since March last year.
In May suspected Sunni Muslim militants wearing suicide vests burst into two Ahmadi prayer halls in Lahore and killed 82 worshippers.
Sufism is a mystical movement, which includes both Shi'ites and Sunnis, that spreads the message of Islam through music, poetry and dancing. Radical groups consider it un-Islamic.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague branded the attacks a "vicious and inhuman act".
"Britain stands alongside the people and government of Pakistan against those who commit such appalling atrocities," Hague said.
European Union foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said the incident showed the scale of the extremist threat in Pakistan.
Picture: Pakistani Sunni Muslims shout slogans during a protest in Karachi against the suicide bomb attacks on the shrine of Muslim Sufi saint Hazrat Syed Ali bin Usman Hajweri. Photo: AFP
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