Lahore, PAKISTAN (AFP)
At least 22 Pakistani riot police were killed in a suicide bomb attack outside the high court in the commercial heart of Lahore on Thursday, officers said.
The bomber set off a device packed with ball bearings when police stopped him outside the court, two weeks to the day after the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in a gun and suicide bomb attack.
Up to 60 people, many of them police officers, were rushed to hospital after the explosion in the city's main commercial district, the latest in a wave of suicide attacks that have killed hundreds across Pakistan over the past year.
The bodies of at least 11 dead police officers, dressed in full riot gear with protective vests and helmets, were seen lying side-by-side where they had fallen. A dead horse, still attached to a vendor's cart, lay nearby.
"Twenty-two policemen died in the attack, six are critically wounded," Lahore police chief Malik Iqbal said.
"Around 35 have minor injuries. The suicide bomber approached the police picket and was signaled to stop," Iqbal said.
A wounded officer with his clothes apparently blown off by the force of the blast lay in the street screaming for help as security forces scrambled to cordon off the downtown area.
Police said the head of the suspected suicide bomber had been found about 100 meters (330 feet) from the blast site, which was littered with the dead and wounded.
The blast ripped through a busy square in front of the Lahore High Court as the riot police were gathering ahead of a protest by lawyers against the rule of President Pervez Musharraf.
"There were a large number of police posted outside (the court) because the lawyers had planned a rally against the government today," Cheema said. |
