Bombs outside two churches in the Pakistani city of Lahore yesterday killed 10 people and wounded more than 55 during Sunday services, rescue workers said, and witnesses said quick action by a security guard prevented many more deaths.
A Pakistani Taliban splinter group claimed responsibility.
After the blasts, enraged residents lynched two suspects, police said. Journalist Riaz Ahmed said he had seen the two burnt bodies at an intersection.
The blasts went off minutes apart in a majority Christian suburb of the eastern city. Police said it seemed they targeted two churches located very close to each other — one Catholic and one Protestant.
“I was sitting at a shop near the church when a blast jolted the area. I rushed towards the spot and saw the security guard scuffle with a man who was trying to enter the church, after failing, he blew himself up,” witness Amir Masih said. “I saw his body parts flying through the air.”
The guard died as well, he said. It was not clear if the first blast was also triggered by a suicide bomber, Masih said.
At least 10 people were killed and 55 wounded, provincial chief minister adviser Khawaja Rafiq said.
“The rescue operation is still underway and the death toll may increase,” rescue services spokesman Sajjad Hussain said.
Taliban faction Jamaat-ul-Ahrar claimed responsibility.
Militants in Pakistan have often attacked Christians and other religious minorities over the past decade. Many blame the government for doing little to protect them. Pakistani police are notoriously poorly trained and underfunded.
Lahore is the capital of Punjab, Pakistan’s wealthiest and most populous province and the political heartland of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
The city is generally considered peaceful compared with many other areas of Pakistan, but violence there has been increasing after the government’s failed attempts to hold peace talks with the Taliban last year.
After the talks failed, the military launched an offensive in the remote northwestern region of North Waziristan along the Afghan border to push the Taliban from the last major region they controlled.
The military now holds the major urban centers there, but residents say many militants fled before the offensive began and others remain in rural areas.
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