Two suicide blasts in Lahore kill over 24

LAHORE – Pakistan’s security crisis deepened yesterday as massive suicide bombs tore through a seven-story police headquarters and a house in Lahore, leaving at least 24 people dead and more than 200 wounded.

The two blasts happened about 15 minutes apart in different districts of this eastern city. The first tore the facade from the Federal Investigation Agency building as staff were beginning their working day.It also damaged scores of homes in the neighborhood.City police chief Malik Mohammed Iqbal said an explosive-packed car was driven into a parking lot and detonated next to the building – which houses a department of the federal police’s anti-terrorism unit – knocking out the walls of several offices and part of a stairwell.Rarely has a suicide blast in Pakistan caused such serious structural damage to a major government facility.Twenty-one people were killed, including 16 police, officials said.Mian Muhammad Ejaz, a top city administrator, said over 200 people were wounded.Doctors at Lahore hospitals said the dead included a 3-year-old girl, and 32 students hit by flying debris at a school near the police building.The second explosion shattered the office of an advertising agency in a residential neighborhood, about 15 miles away.Police investigator Tasaddaq Hussain said two children and the wife of the house’s gardener were killed.Iqbal said both blasts were suicide attacks.The bombings come amid a spate of violence that authorities are blaming on Taliban and al Qaeda-linked militants, spreading beyond their strongholds along the Afghan border, and as the victors of last month’s elections prepare to form a new government.There have been at least seven suicide attacks in the three weeks since the February 18 vote.Nampa-APThe first tore the facade from the Federal Investigation Agency building as staff were beginning their working day.It also damaged scores of homes in the neighborhood.City police chief Malik Mohammed Iqbal said an explosive-packed car was driven into a parking lot and detonated next to the building – which houses a department of the federal police’s anti-terrorism unit – knocking out the walls of several offices and part of a stairwell.Rarely has a suicide blast in Pakistan caused such serious structural damage to a major government facility.Twenty-one people were killed, including 16 police, officials said.Mian Muhammad Ejaz, a top city administrator, said over 200 people were wounded.Doctors at Lahore hospitals said the dead included a 3-year-old girl, and 32 students hit by flying debris at a school near the police building.The second explosion shattered the office of an advertising agency in a residential neighborhood, about 15 miles away.Police investigator Tasaddaq Hussain said two children and the wife of the house’s gardener were killed.Iqbal said both blasts were suicide attacks.The bombings come amid a spate of violence that authorities are blaming on Taliban and al Qaeda-linked militants, spreading beyond their strongholds along the Afghan border, and as the victors of last month’s elections prepare to form a new government.There have been at least seven suicide attacks in the three weeks since the February 18 vote.Nampa-AP