Pakistan Sufi Shrine Bombings Kill at Least 35 People, Wound 175 in Lahore
At least 35 people were killed and 175 were injured when two suicide bombers blew themselves up at the shrine of a Sufi saint in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore.
The attacks took place inside the tomb of the Persian Sufi saint Syed Abul Hassan Bin Usman Bin Ali Al-Hajweri when it was crowded with worshippers who gather every Thursday for special rituals, Khusro Pervez, Lahore’s commissioner, told reporters. The heads of both suicide bombers were found by police, he said.
Yesterday’s bombings in Lahore, Pakistan’s cultural capital, come a month after over 100 people were killed in twin attacks on mosques of the minority Ahmadi community in the city on May 28. At least 550 people have been killed in retaliatory attacks by militants in cities nationwide after Pakistan’s military started operations in the northwest last year.
The attacks on the shrine took place at 11:20 p.m., according to the Edhi Rescue Service. Hardline religious militants oppose followers of the Sufi interpretation of Islam, a moderate belief system based on mysticism.
Riots broke out in parts of Lahore as people protested the bombings, GEO television reported.
To contact the reporter on this story: Farhan Sharif in Karachi at fsharif2@bloomberg.net
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