Islamabad, March 12: Twin suicide attacks targetting Pakistan’s military today killed at least 45 people, five of them army personnel and wounded 100 others in a second incident in as many days in the eastern city of Lahore.
Punjab police chief Tariq Salim Dogar told reporters that two bombers, who were on foot, blew themselves up in R.A.Bazar area of Lahore targetting army vehicles, adding that the blasts took place within short span of 15 seconds one after another in the otherwise heavily guarded cantonment.
'We have secured concrete evidence, which will help track down attackers and their masterminds,' he said, as one of another senior police officials Chaudhry Mohammad Shafiq said police had found heads of both the bombers.
Witnesses said that the attacks took place just minutes before start of Friday prayers. 'The first blast rocked the area arounf 12.50 pm (6.50 am GMT) followed by intense firing. 'While I was trying to find out what kind of a blast it was, I saw a military vehicle being hit by another high intensity bomb,' a witness said, adding that there was blood everywhere and broken furniture and human limbs lying on the road.
Local TV channels showed live footage from the scene with army and civilian ambulances taking away injured and dead bodies and thick smoke billowing out in the background.
This was the second incident since Monday when a suicide car bomber struck the wall of a building used by security forces to interrogate militants, killing up to 13 people and wounding at least 65 others.
More than 3,000 people have been killed in a series of suicide attacks and bomb blasts all over Pakistan, mostly targetting security personnel since July 2007. The dreaded Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which lost its chief Baitullah Mehsud in a US drone attack in August 2009, claimed responsibility of most of the attacks, calling it as a revenge for Pakistan's blind support to the US and ongoing military operations in the country's northwestern and tribal regions.
Missile tests
Pakistan navy on Friday successfully test fired variety of missiles and torpedos from ships, submarines and aircraft, in a major show of military might.
The new weapon systems test fired in the North Arabian sea on Friday included anti surface missiles from F-22 P frigates which were recently acquired from China, air-to-surface missiles from P-3C maritime surveillance aircraft and subsurface-to-surface missiles from French-origin Agosta submarines. However, the navy did not disclose the range of missiles testfired today.
Pakistan formally kicked off its medium-range missile programme in April 1998, with the first successful test flight of Ghauri –I missile followed by similar tests the next years involving the nuclear capable Ghauri, Shaheen, Ghaznavi and Abdali missile systems.
HATF-3 (Ghaznavi), HATF-5 (Ghauri), HATF-4 (Shaheen-1) had been handed over to Pakistan Army 's Strategic Force Command a few years ago.
Pakistan's inventory of missiles also include Ground Launched Cruise Missile , Babur, which has a range of 700 kilometers
