India and Pakistan have suspended a daily military ritual on their main land-border crossing after a suicide attack killed at least 55 people on Sunday, the first time the colorful parade has been called off since the two countries went to war in 1971.
Pakistan was on high alert yesterday for the mourning processions of Ashura, a flashpoint for sectarian violence, a day after the country’s deadliest bombing in more than a year caused carnage among crowds leaving the colorful ceremony to close the Wagah frontier post, near the eastern city of Lahore.
The explosion, which also wounded more than 120, was a rare attack in Punjab, Pakistan’s richest and most populous province and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s powerbase.
Photo: Reuters
At least two different factions of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan have claimed responsibility for the attack, the first major strike since the army launched an offensive against militant strongholds in the tribal northwest in June.
The Wagah ceremony is one of Pakistan’s few tourist attractions. Every day, thousands of Indians and Pakistanis flock to watch the elaborate show where border security officials kick their feet high and grimace in mock aggression in a peacock-like display of patriotism.
On Sunday, the blast ripped through a carpark about 500m from Pakistan’s border gate just as hundreds of people were leaving the performance.
Like many Pakistanis who attend the event, eyewitness Nawaz Khan had gone with family members.
“There were 14 of us, after the parade I came out of the gate and my brother told me to go back and bring the children,” Khan said.
As he returned with the children, he said he saw a “young boy” running toward the gate, who was stopped by a Ranger.
“Then there was a huge bang and I saw my brother flying in the air. There were screams all around and the place was filled with smell of burnt human flesh and blood,” Khan said. “I had lost the children and I was screaming for them, and then I saw the body of my brother lying on the ground with other dead bodies.”
Security forces across Pakistan were bracing yesterday for possible attacks as Shiite Muslims mark Ashura, the anniversary of the death of Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed.
Thousands of minority Shiites will take to the streets for mourning processions and the occasion has been marred by sectarian bloodshed in recent years.
About 10,000 police and paramilitary Rangers have been deployed in Islamabad and its twin city Rawalpindi, officials said, and some mobile phone services have been shut down.
This is a tactic routinely deployed at sensitive times in Pakistan to try to stop militants using mobile phones to detonate bombs.
At least 11 people were killed in Ashura clashes in Rawalpindi, Punjab Province, last year.
Security analyst Hasan Askari said the security forces’ focus on the Ashura threat may have made them take their eye off the ball at Wagah.
“There was a lot of security for the Muharram processions so this place was the easiest target,” he said. “Security forces have taken a lot of precautions, they are now looking for soft targets.”
The attack so close to the Indian border comes at a delicate point in Islamabad-New Delhi ties.
Tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors are running high after an upsurge in shelling incidents across the disputed border in Kashmir.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the “shocking” attack, describing it as a “dastardly act of terrorism” and offering condolences to the bereaved families.
The Indian Home Ministry said India’s Border Security Force agreed to a Pakistani request to suspend the flag-lowering ceremony to allow mourning.
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