(NSI News Source Info) PESHAWAR, Pakistan - May 28, 2009: A senior leader of the Taliban in Pakistan today claimed responsibility for the bomb attack in Lahore that killed at least 24 people and wounded hundreds more, saying it was revenge for the army offensive against militants in Swat valley. 
Pakistan emergency workers and police comb through the rubble of the police building after a suicide bomb attack killed at least 23 people and wounding around 200 on May 27, 2009 Lahore, Pakistan. The attack came in the center of the city aimed at the offices of the police and Pakistan's main intelligence agency. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, the third in Lahore, but most blame the Taliban for the violent retaliation since the army launched a sweeping operation against the Taliban in Swat region three weeks ago.
Hakimullah Mehsud, a deputy to the Pakistani Taliban chief, Baitullah Mehsud, told the Associated Press that the attack on the offices of the police chief and Pakistan's main spy agency, the ISI, was connected to the military operation.
"It was in response to the Swat operation where innocent people have been killed," Mehsud said. The little-known group Taliban Movement in Punjab has also claimed responsibility for the attack.
The attack was the third in Lahore in as many months and Pakistanis have been bracing themselves for violent retaliation since the army launched a sweeping operation against the Taliban in Swat valley three weeks ago.
"These terrorists were defeated in Fata [Federally Administered Tribal Areas] and Swat and now they have come here," the interior minister, Rehman Malik, said yesterday. "This is a war, and it is a war for our survival."
As Malik spoke, rescuers were scrambling to pull the dead and wounded from the wreckage of destroyed buildings. Twelve police officers and one child were among the dead, a television station reported. Twenty people were injured when the roof of the operating theatre in a nearby hospital collapsed on them.
Sajjad Bhutto, a senior government official, said four men had leapt from a car that pulled up outside a police building near the ISI headquarters. The men, who were described as young and clean-shaven by witnesses, started shooting.
Guards outside the spy agency returned fire, sparking a short gun battle that ended when the car, which had crashed into a security barrier, exploded. The blast levelled an emergency response building across the street and sheared a wall from the ISI office, where two intelligence officers and six others were killed.
It left a scene of devastation along the mall – a tree-lined, colonial-era thoroughfare. A petrol station was destroyed, and broken glass and crushed vehicles littered the road. Later distraught relatives turned up, looking for family members.
Bhutto said 100kg of explosives were used in the bomb.
The attack was no surprise, said Dr Hasan-Askari Rizvi, a Lahore-based defence analyst. "We were expecting there would be some kind of retaliation," he said, drawing a link with the ongoing operations in Swat. "The surprise was that it was such a massive attack."
Lahore, Pakistan's second largest city, has become a favoured target for militants. In March, gunmen attacked a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team, killing seven people and plunging Pakistan into international sporting isolation.
Weeks later other gunmen mounted a siege of a police training centre on the city's outskirts, killing several recruits. The Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was to avenge US drone attacks against his mountain base in South Waziristan.
Lahore is the heartland of Pakistan's military and cultural elite. Most of the army is recruited from the surrounding agricultural plains, and the city is the base of many powerful politicians, including the opposition leader, Nawaz Sharif.
"They thought that if they could demoralise people here, it would have a lot of impact and a restraining influence on the military," said Rizvi.
But the ease with which the militants struck raised tough questions about who was helping them, and why the country's security services had failed to pre-empt the attack.
Although the largest militant groups are based in the tribal areas, they operate in Punjab with the aid of local extremist groups. Southern Punjab is a notorious hub of sectarian and jihadi activity. "They always have a linkage. It could be a mosque, a madrasa, or a link to one of the various militant groups," said Rizvi.
As the threat to Pakistan's stability rose this year, the US has stepped up pressure on Islamabad to act forcefully. Yesterday's blast coincided with a visit to Islamabad by General David Petraeus, the head of the US central command.
But the military and Pakistan's spy agency are compromised by their own cloudy history – the army has a history of cracking down on some jihadi groups, but favouring others as proxy fighters to be deployed in Afghanistan or India.
In Lahore, local television showed police dragging two suspects through an angry throng of onlookers, who beat one as he was shoved into a police van.
In Islamabad, the military spokesman reported "considerable progress" in the battle for control of Mingora, the main city in Swat, which should be cleared of militants by Saturday, he said.
Pakistan emergency workers and police comb through the rubble of the police building after a suicide bomb attack killed at least 23 people and wounding around 200 on May 27, 2009 Lahore, Pakistan. The attack came in the center of the city aimed at the offices of the police and Pakistan's main intelligence agency. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, the third in Lahore, but most blame the Taliban for the violent retaliation since the army launched a sweeping operation against the Taliban in Swat region three weeks ago.
Hakimullah Mehsud, a deputy to the Pakistani Taliban chief, Baitullah Mehsud, told the Associated Press that the attack on the offices of the police chief and Pakistan's main spy agency, the ISI, was connected to the military operation.
"It was in response to the Swat operation where innocent people have been killed," Mehsud said. The little-known group Taliban Movement in Punjab has also claimed responsibility for the attack.
The attack was the third in Lahore in as many months and Pakistanis have been bracing themselves for violent retaliation since the army launched a sweeping operation against the Taliban in Swat valley three weeks ago.
"These terrorists were defeated in Fata [Federally Administered Tribal Areas] and Swat and now they have come here," the interior minister, Rehman Malik, said yesterday. "This is a war, and it is a war for our survival."
As Malik spoke, rescuers were scrambling to pull the dead and wounded from the wreckage of destroyed buildings. Twelve police officers and one child were among the dead, a television station reported. Twenty people were injured when the roof of the operating theatre in a nearby hospital collapsed on them.
Sajjad Bhutto, a senior government official, said four men had leapt from a car that pulled up outside a police building near the ISI headquarters. The men, who were described as young and clean-shaven by witnesses, started shooting.
Guards outside the spy agency returned fire, sparking a short gun battle that ended when the car, which had crashed into a security barrier, exploded. The blast levelled an emergency response building across the street and sheared a wall from the ISI office, where two intelligence officers and six others were killed.
It left a scene of devastation along the mall – a tree-lined, colonial-era thoroughfare. A petrol station was destroyed, and broken glass and crushed vehicles littered the road. Later distraught relatives turned up, looking for family members.
Bhutto said 100kg of explosives were used in the bomb.
The attack was no surprise, said Dr Hasan-Askari Rizvi, a Lahore-based defence analyst. "We were expecting there would be some kind of retaliation," he said, drawing a link with the ongoing operations in Swat. "The surprise was that it was such a massive attack."
Lahore, Pakistan's second largest city, has become a favoured target for militants. In March, gunmen attacked a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team, killing seven people and plunging Pakistan into international sporting isolation.
Weeks later other gunmen mounted a siege of a police training centre on the city's outskirts, killing several recruits. The Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was to avenge US drone attacks against his mountain base in South Waziristan.
Lahore is the heartland of Pakistan's military and cultural elite. Most of the army is recruited from the surrounding agricultural plains, and the city is the base of many powerful politicians, including the opposition leader, Nawaz Sharif.
"They thought that if they could demoralise people here, it would have a lot of impact and a restraining influence on the military," said Rizvi.
But the ease with which the militants struck raised tough questions about who was helping them, and why the country's security services had failed to pre-empt the attack.
Although the largest militant groups are based in the tribal areas, they operate in Punjab with the aid of local extremist groups. Southern Punjab is a notorious hub of sectarian and jihadi activity. "They always have a linkage. It could be a mosque, a madrasa, or a link to one of the various militant groups," said Rizvi.
As the threat to Pakistan's stability rose this year, the US has stepped up pressure on Islamabad to act forcefully. Yesterday's blast coincided with a visit to Islamabad by General David Petraeus, the head of the US central command.
But the military and Pakistan's spy agency are compromised by their own cloudy history – the army has a history of cracking down on some jihadi groups, but favouring others as proxy fighters to be deployed in Afghanistan or India.
In Lahore, local television showed police dragging two suspects through an angry throng of onlookers, who beat one as he was shoved into a police van.
In Islamabad, the military spokesman reported "considerable progress" in the battle for control of Mingora, the main city in Swat, which should be cleared of militants by Saturday, he said.
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