Pakistan investigates Lahore blasts
Police pursuing al-Qaeda angle in the wake of suicide attacks that claimed 24 lives.
Published On 12 Mar 2008
The blasts happened about 15 minutes apart, and in different districts of Lahore.
The first tore the facade of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) office, a seven-storey building.
While al-Qaeda-linked fighters in Iraq have regularly used vehicles to launch massive attacks on buildings, such damage has rarely been inflicted on a government building in Pakistan.
Responsibility
Azhar Hasan Nadeem, the provincial police chief, said it was not yet clear if al-Qaeda was involved in the attack.
“Of course they have a huge organisation, and they have a very vast network, but it would be premature to pinpoint exactly as to which particular organisation is responsible,” he said.
In Lahore, Malik Mohammed Iqbal, a police chief, said that an explosives-laden vehicle managed to penetrate security, drive into a parking lot and detonate close to the FIA building.
Anti-terror unit
The building houses part of the federal police’s anti-terrorism unit – destroying offices on the lower floors and blowing out the walls around a stairwell.
Footage from a surveillance camera shown on private television showed a small truck running over a guard and speeding through the gate seconds before the blast.
The spike in violence across the country has prompted a number of Pakistanis to question Musharraf’s approach to countering al-Qaida and the Taliban.
Musharraf’s opponents say punitive military action has only fuelled the violence.
Source: News Agencies