A suicide blast at one of Pakistan’s oldest and most popular Sufi shrines yesterday killed at least 10 people and wounded 24 in the eastern city of Lahore, police said, in an attack claimed by the Pakistani Taliban.
The blast — which a faction of the militant group claimed by e-mail — occurred near the entrance gate for female visitors to the 11th-century Data Darbar shrine, one of the largest Sufi shrines in South Asia, as the nations marks the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
Husks of vehicles littered the pavement near the shrine as first responders rushed to the scene, while armed security forces fanned out in the area.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The emergency room at the Mayo Hospital in Lahore was crowded with the wounded and people searching for loved ones, a reporter said.
Among them was Azra Bibi, whose son Mohammed Shahid cares for visitors’ shoes, which must be removed before entering.
He has been missing since the blast, she said.
“They are not Muslims,” she said, referring to the attackers. “They even targeted worshipers.”
The shrine has long been home to colorful Sufi festivals and a prime destination for the nation’s myriad Muslim sects, making it a soft target for militant attacks.
It was targeted in a 2010 suicide attack that killed more than 40 people.
Since then, the area has been increasingly hemmed in by heavy security, with visitors forced to pass through several layers of screening before they can enter the complex.
Sufi worshipers, who follow a mystical strain of Islam, have frequently been the target of attacks in Pakistan by Islamic militants — including the Islamic State group — who consider Sufi beliefs and rituals at the graves of Muslim saints as heresy.
Senior police official Mohammed Ashfaq told a news conference that security personnel at the shrine were targeted.
Three police officials, two security guards and five civilians, including a child, were among the dead, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar said.
Pakistan’s push against extremism was stepped up after the nation’s deadliest-ever attack, an assault on a school in Peshawar in 2014 that left more than 150 people dead.
Since then, security has dramatically improved, but militants retain the ability to carry out major attacks.
Major urban centers such as Lahore are not immune.
Critics have long said that the military and government crackdown has not addressed the root causes of extremism in Pakistan, where hardline Muslim groups often target religious minorities.
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