At Least 23 Die in Huge Bombing in Pakistan

Source: International Herald Tribune

By SALMAN MASOOD
Published: May 27, 2009

LAHORE, Pakistan — Suicide attackers spraying gunfire rammed a carload of explosives into a building housing an ambulance service here on Wednesday, killing at least 23 people in what officials said was a failed attempt to strike at the nearby provincial headquarters of Pakistan’s powerful intelligence agency.

Almost 300 people were wounded in the attack, which took place in broad daylight in one of the busiest districts of Lahore. The assault underscored that militants in Pakistan now feel emboldened to strike far from their traditional strongholds in the lawless regions bordering Afghanistan.
Officials said that at least two of the attackers appeared to have died in the blast and that three suspects were detained. Some witnesses reported sustained gunfire after the explosion, indicating that at least one gunman might have escaped.

Several army and intelligence officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters, said they believed that the attack was aimed at the local command center of the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, Pakistan’s premier spy agency.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the attack may have been in reprisal for the Pakistani Army’s campaign against Taliban militants in the northwestern Swat Valley.
“I believe that anti-Pakistan elements, who want to destabilize our country and see defeat in Swat, have now turned to our cities,” Mr. Malik told reporters.

The bomb left a crater 8 feet deep and 20 feet wide, and the blast was heard for miles around. Dozens of vehicles were crumpled like paper, and broken glass filled the street. The red brick building of the Rescue 15 ambulance service collapsed after taking the brunt of the blast, and emergency workers struggled for hours to pull the dead and wounded from the debris.

Fahim Jahanzaib, a rescue services official, placed the death toll at 23, with more than 294 wounded.
The dead included 14 policemen and a colonel belonging to the intelligence agency, according to an intelligence official speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media.

“It is quite apparent that the ISI was the target,” the official said, calling the attack a “brazen and well thought-out plan.”
It was the third attack in three months in or near Lahore, which is the capital and cultural hub of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous and affluent province. Earlier attacks provoked official fears that Taliban insurgents had teamed up with local militants, including Lashkar-e-Taiba, suspected of conducting the attacks in Mumbai, India, in November that killed at least 163 people.

In the attack on Wednesday, a white car containing three or four attackers drove toward the rear entrance of the ISI building about 10:15 a.m., according to officials and witnesses. One man jumped out and began to spray gunfire at the police and security personnel guarding the area, said a witness, Ikram Rabbani, who works in a nearby store.
Unable to get through the building’s security barrier, the driver changed course and rammed into the neighboring building, which housed the police-run ambulance service. The building, made of brick, collapsed, shrouding the neighborhood in dust.
Mr. Rabbani said he heard a small explosion followed by a second powerful blast.

“They couldn’t get through,” the intelligence official said. “So, the second-best option was to hit the building right next to the sector headquarters.”
Immediately after the explosion, army troops poured out of the heavily fortified office of the intelligence agency. Security forces took up position on nearby rooftops, and a helicopter hovered above. The office of Lahore’s police chief is in the same neighborhood.
No group immediately took responsibility for the attack, but the suspicion of many Pakistani officials fell on Taliban militants seeking vengeance for the army’s current push into the Swat Valley.
“There is a possibility that this is a retaliatory blast,” said Farahnaz Ispahani, a presidential spokeswoman. “Unfortunately, the public will have to stand very strong and united because we are fighting a very powerful and ideologically driven enemy.
“Very possibly, it is an attempt to subvert the army’s brave and courageous operation and the government’s resolve to defeat terrorists,” she added.
The United States has been pressing Pakistan to move against the militants to undermine their support for the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan. Gen. David H. Petraeus, head of the Central Command, was in the capital, Islamabad, to meet Pakistani leaders when the attack happened, Reuters reported.
The ISI is a powerful body that has long been mistrusted by American officials, who accuse some of its members of harboring sympathies for the Taliban and Al Qaeda. But it has been the repeated target of militants, some of whom suspect ISI agents of helping the Central Intelligence Agency pinpoint the coordinates for drone attacks on insurgents close to the Afghan border.
Maryam Kazmi, 25, who lives in the neighborhood, said she was watching television when the blast shook her neighborhood. “The ground shook, and all the windows of my room flew open,” she said. “The air-conditioner’s frame fell on my bed. “It was so loud that I had to cover my ears.”
The explosion was one of a series of recent attacks in Lahore.
In March, eight people were killed in the city in a commando-style attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team.
Later in March, militants hit several hundred police cadets during a morning drill at their academy in a village near Lahore. The attackers went on a rampage, killing at least eight recruits and instructors.
Waqar Gillani contributed reporting from Lahore, Pakistan; Sharon Otterman from New York; and Alan Cowell from Paris.