LAHORE - A SUICIDE car bomb attack on Wednesday flattened a police building in Pakistan's city of Lahore, killing 23 people in what the government branded revenge for an offensive against the Taleban.
The blast - the third deadly attack to rock the country's liberal cultural capital in as many months - points to a widening net of Islamist violence which has killed more than 1,800 people across Pakistan in less than two years.
Rescue workers carried out the injured on their backs, stumbling over the debris, while people tried to dig out one man in a traditional white shirt who lay trapped and helpless under stones and wooden planks.
'I heard firing and then a huge blast,' said one policeman who staggered out of the wreckage, saying that there were 30-35 policemen inside the building.
A look at some recent major attacks in Pakistan or blamed on Pakistan-based militants:
- May 27, 2009: A suicide car bomber targets buildings, housing police and intelligence offices in the eastern city of Lahore, killing about 30 and injuring more than 100.
Militant violence has surged in Pakistan since mid-2007, with numerous attacks on the security forces, as well as government and Western targets.
Officials have warned that militants might launch bomb attacks in retaliation for the offensive in Swat where the military says about 15,000 members of the security forces face 4,000-5,000 militants.
THERE was no immediate claim for the blast but immediate suspicion fell on Taleban and Al-Qaeda linked groups as the authorities branded the attack revenge for its latest offensive against the Taliban in the northwest.
'Enemies of Pakistan who want to destabilise the country are coming here after their defeat in Swat,' Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters. 'There is a war and this is a war for our survival,' he added.
Up to five attackers opened fire and threw grenades before a van packed with explosives blew up outside a police emergency response building beside the provincial headquarters of Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, police said.
There were two attackers inside the vehicle but they failed to storm the checkpoint, instead hitting the barrier, exploding into a ball of fire on the road and flattening the building, police and administration officials said. Authorities said more than 300 people were wounded in the attack.
'I heard firing and then a huge blast,' said one policeman who staggered out of the rubble, saying that there were 30-35 policemen inside. 'The building collapsed. I was at the back of the building and am fortunately alive,' he told reporters.
Rescue workers ferried out the injured on their backs, stumbling over the debris, while people tried to dig out one man in a traditional white shirt who lay trapped and helpless under stones and wooden planks.
The blast, which some witnesses likened to an earthquake, damaged nearby buildings in the security nerve centre of Lahore, two months after a deadly assault on a police academy near Lahore claimed by the Taleban.
'The initial investigation shows that the attackers first fired at the police and security pickets at the corner of the building and then an explosives-laden Toyota van blew up,' said Lahore police chief Pervaiz Rathore.
'The terrorists also threw hand grenades but they could not penetrate the building. The death toll is 22-23 and the number of wounded exceeds 300. This includes people with minor injuries,' he added.
The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) building was partly damaged and an intelligence officer killed in the blast, one security official told AFP. -- AFP
