Two suicide attacks killed at least 31 people and injured more than 200 in Lahore on Tuesday as suspected Islamist militants escalated their campaign of mayhem in Pakistan’s largest cities.
A huge blast at the city centre headquarters of the federal investigations agency ripped the front from the seven-storey building, killing at least 21 people including a three-year-old girl.
The blast rocked buildings in a wide radius, shattering windows and injuring 32 students at a school. “It was like hell let loose on us,” a resident, Fazal Muqeem, told the Associated Press.
The bomber drove a vehicle packed with explosives up to the building, police said. A smaller blast occurred 15 minutes later when a pair of bombers crashed their car through the gate of an advertising agency, killing a woman and two children.
The agency director, Salman Batalwi, said he could not understand why he had been targeted but noted that a nearby house was rented by the family of the assassinated opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. “Maybe they had the wrong address,” he said.
A few hours later the Australian cricket team cancelled a forthcoming tour of Pakistan on security grounds.
The bombs were the latest in a string of attacks against military and police targets in Lahore, the previously peaceful capital of Punjab province.
President Pervez Musharraf condemned the “savage” bombings but opponents blamed his strong-arm policy of attacking militants at their bases in the tribal belt.
A few hours after the blast a small group of enraged residents gathered on the main Mall Road, chanting: “Musharraf is a dog, Musharraf is a pimp.”
Musharraf said that the inaugural session of the new Parliament would take place on Monday, when his rivals, Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari, are expected to form a coalition government. Sharif’s party is pushing for his resignation.
“Musharraf has opened up new faultlines in our society. He has become very symbolic and controversial for these reactionary forces,” said Ahsan Iqbal, a spokesperson for Sharif’s party. “If he goes at least it will be a breakthrough to give the people and the country a chance for a new opening.”
More than 150 people have died in suicide blasts since Bhutto was killed in Rawalpindi on December 27.
Amir Rana, director of the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies, said that the bombings were principally a response to US-financed army operations in the tribal belt.
“They want to send the message that if you carry on operations in our areas, then the Punjab is not far,” he said.
The attacks are increasing in sophistication. Witnesses reported a pair of suicide bombers at each attack site. As usual, there was no claim of responsibility.
“Unfortunately our enemy is nameless, faceless,” said an Interior Ministry spokesperson, Javed Iqbal Cheema.
Pakistan’s policy of covertly using Islamist radicals as proxy fighters in Afghanistan and Kashmir during the 1980s and 90s is starting to backfire spectacularly.
Pro-Taliban tribal militants are thought to be collaborating with al-Qaeda fighters sheltering in the tribal belt and jihadist groups based in Punjab.
But Rana said the troubles were unlikely to stop even if Musharraf was ousted. “These are the same people who were involved in sectarian clashes in the 80s and 90s. Now their fight has transformed into a global jihadist agenda,” he said. – guardian.co.uk Â