At least 30 people were killed and dozens were injured when a suicide bomber rammed a car into a police building in Lahore today.
Other attackers threw grenades before the truck exploded, Sajjad Ahmed Bhutta, a senior city official said. Heavy gunfire was heard after the massive blast, which demolished the two-storey building and damaged several other buildings in the high-security zone.
Raja Riaz a senior minister in the Punjab provincial government, said that at least 30 people were killed in the attack, which was carried out by several people. "It was a well-planned terrorist attack," he said. Three suspects were arrested.
At least 50 policemen were inside the building, which is in one of Lahore’s major commercial districts, at the time of the attack. "The entire building came down," said a policeman who was outside the building at the time of the attack.
One witness, Riaz Bukhari, said that gunmen fired indiscriminately, killing a traffic warden outside the building. "They were firing with machine guns," said Mr Bukhari, who was injured in the blast.
Another witness said that the attackers were wearing black jackets and came out of a white vehicle. "I saw several dead bodies, including of some school children, lying on the street," Khalil Ahmed, a shopkeeper, said.
The high-security zone houses many important government offices, including the office of the Chief Minister. At least 30 buildings and dozens of vehicles were damaged. The area was littered with broken glass.
Police and doctors said that at least 180 people were wounded, many of them seriously. Dozens of others are trapped under the rubble. A state of emergency was declared.
No one has claimed responsibility, but the police suspect Islamic militants retaliating against the military operation against the Taleban in Swat Valley.
Lahore, the capital of Pakistan’s largest province, has been the target of several terrorist attacks in recent months. In March gunmen killed more than seven people in an attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team. Several of the cricketers were injured.
Security officials said that the same militant group could be involved in the latest attack in the city. "The pattern of the two attacks was the same," Tasneem Noorani, a former federal interior secretary, said.
Intelligence officials said that southern Punjab had become a base for militant Islamic groups associated with the Taleban.
Thousands of troops are fighting Taleban militants in Swat Valley. A senior military spokesman said that a large part of the valley had been cleared of rebels and street-to-street fighting was raging in Mingora, the main town of the area.