Two suicide car bombings killed at least 25 people in the Pakistani city of Lahore yesterday, posing a fresh challenge to the US-allied country's incoming civilian government.
The deadliest blast demolished much of the federal police headquarters in the heart of the eastern city, while the other hit an advertising office several kilometers away. Two children were among the dead.
Rescue workers clawed through the debris at the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), which deals mainly with immigration and people smuggling.
PHOTO: EPA
"It was a suicide attack on the FIA office and it was the target," Lahore police chief Malik Mohammad Iqbal said, adding that at least 21 people were killed in the bombing and more than 100 wounded.
Lawyer Wali Mohammed Khan, who was on the second floor of the building when the explosion happened, said the blast was "so intense that I was literally blown off my chair."
FIA chief Tariq Pervaz said paramedics were "trying to rescue survivors from under the rubble." FIA sources said that at least 10 employees were among the dead.
The building also housed the offices of a US-trained investigation unit created to counter terrorism, which was possibly the intended target, security officials said.
The second near-simultaneous blast was also caused by a suicide car bomb and hit an advertising agency in an upscale neighborhood of the city, killing another four people, police said.
"An explosives-laden vehicle was rammed into the office," AN interior ministry spokesman said.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf condemned the "savage act" and said that the "acts of terrorism cannot deter government's resolve to fight the scourge with full force," state media said.
Pakistan has been rocked by six major blasts since parliamentary polls on Feb. 18, which were won by the parties of slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
The parties over the weekend signed an agreement on forming a coalition government that is likely to take on Musharraf, but it must also grapple with the tide of violence engulfing the country.
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