Car bomber hits police building in Lahore; 11 dead

Lahore, 8 Mar: A suspected suicide car bomber today struck special investigation unit's building used to interrogate high-value Taliban militants in Pakistan's key city here, killing at least 11 people and wounding 61 others.

Breaking a brief lull in terrorist violence, the explosive laden vehicle hit the building housing the special investigation unit in Model Town area of Lahore at around 8.15 am. The injured included schools girls.

Punjab police chief Tariq Salim Dogar described the blast as a "vehicle-borne explosion".

"I was informed that the terrorists came in a car and it exploded at the gate," he said.

Witnesses said an explosives-laden car had been rammed into the building. Officials of the bomb disposal squad said up to 800 kg of explosives were used in the attack.

Lahore Police Commissioner Khusro Pervez said 11 people were killed and 61 injured in the attack.

He said the death toll could rise as some persons were feared to be buried in the debris of the building that collapsed due to the powerful explosion.

While Taliban militants have been carrying out attacks regularly in the North West Frontier Province, the strike in Pakistan's cultural capital of Lahore came after a considerable lull.

Sources said some important suspects with links to the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan were being held in the special investigation unit.

Officials were carrying out a review to ascertain how the explosives-laden car had got past several security check posts in Model Town, Pervez said.

However, there was no official word on these suspects and their status.

The attack came as Pakistani security forces mounted a crackdown on Taliban arresting many of its top commanders from Karachi and other parts of the country.

Officials at the Jinnah Hospital said two women and a minor girl were among the dead. They described the condition of 29 injured as critical. There were also 13 women among the injured, they said.

"Some of the injured sustained multiple injuries. Doctors are performing emergency surgery on them," Javed Akram, a senior doctor at Jinnah Hospital, told the media.

An emergency was declared in all hospitals in Lahore and doctors were recalled for duty.

The powerful blast reduced the two-storey building housing the special investigation unit to a pile of bricks and mangled metal. It also created a crater about 20 feet wide and eight feet deep.

The explosion blew out the walls of several nearby houses and shattered windows of buildings located with a radius of three kilometres.

Footage on television showed smoke billowing over the site as rescue workers with bloodstained clothes dug through the rubble with their hands. The footage also showed the rescue workers removing a body from the debris.

"We were in the process of shifting police offices from residential areas but this attack occurred before we could complete the shifting of this unit," said Punjab police chief Dogar.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Last year, terrorists had struck the office of the special investigation unit in another part of Model Town.

Following that attack, it was shifted to its current location. There are at least eight offices of various intelligence agencies in the area.

Terrorists have also targeted offices of the Federal Investigation Agency and Inter-Services Intelligence in Lahore over the past year, killing dozens of people.
 
(PTI)