80 dead as Islamic militants attack mosques in Pakistan

80 dead as Islamic militants attack mosques in Pakistan

  May 29, 2010    Pradeep Padma

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Some 80 people died and dozens were wounded in the worst-ever attack against the Ahmadi sect.

Officials said the assaults in Lahore were carried out by at least seven men, including three suicide bombers. Two attackers were captured.

At one point, a gunman fired bullets from atop a minaret.

It was one of the first times militants have deployed gun and suicide squads and taken hostages in a co-ordinated attack on a religious minority in Pakistan.

Yesterday's attacks took place in the Model Town and Garhi Shahu districts of Lahore, Pakistan's second-largest city and one of its most important, both politically and militarily.

The assault at Model Town was relatively brief and involved four attackers spraying worshippers with bullets before exploding hand grenades, said Sajjad Bhutta, Lahore's deputy commissioner.

Several kilometres away at Garhi Shahu, the stand-off lasted about four hours.

TV footage showed an attacker on the top of a minaret of the mosque at one point in the siege, firing an assault rifle and throwing hand grenades.

Outside, police traded bullets with the gunmen.

Mr Bhutta said at least three attackers held several people hostage inside the Garhi Shahu mosque. The three wore jackets filled with ammunition.

"They fought the police for some time, but on seeing they were being defeated they exploded themselves," he said.

Two attackers were caught, and one was being treated for wounds, Punjab province police chief Tariq Saleem Dogar said. It was reported that the Punjab province branch of the Pakistani Taleban had claimed responsibility. However, such attacks often spur unverifiable claims of responsibility from various groups.

The province's top executive, chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, appealed for calm.

"We, our security forces, will fight this menace till the end," Mr Sharif said. "Attacks on places of worship is barbarianism. It is a shame to cause bloodshed in mosques."

Muslim leaders have accused Ahmadis of defying the basic tenet of Islam that says Mohammed was the final prophet – Ahmadis argue that their leader was the saviour rather than a prophet.

The long-standing threat to minorities in nation allied to the United States has been exacerbated as the Sunni extremist Taleban and al-Qaeda movements have spread.

Luqman Ahmad, 36, was sitting waiting for prayers to start when he heard gunshots and then an explosion. He quickly lay down and closed his eyes.

"It was like a war going on around me. The cries I heard sent chills down my spine," he said. "I kept on praying, 'May God save me from this hell'.

"I cannot understand what logic these terrorists have by attacking worshippers and harmless people like us," he said, describing how he had seen bodies and blood all around.

Also yesterday, a suspected US missile strike killed 11 alleged militants and wounded three others in the Nazai Narai area of the South Waziristan tribal region, intelligence officials said.

The exact identities of the dead were not immediately clear, said the officials.

Elsewhere, in Pakistan's south-west Baluchistan province yesterday, gunmen on a motorcycle killed four police officers in Quetta city.

One of the officers had helped to arrest militants from the banned Sunni extremist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, senior police official Naveed Ahmed said.