Lahore suicide bomb blast kills 23
Pastor Dale Morgan
Lahore suicide bomb blast kills 23*
* Story Highlights
* NEW: Blast outside Lahore court kills at least 23 people and
injures 58 others
* Suicide bomb exploded as lawyers were set to begin protest rally
outside high court
* A man blew himself up after being stopped by police at a security
barrier
* There were reports of a second blast, but these proved to be unfounded
LAHORE, Pakistan (CNN) -- A suicide bomber killed at least 23 people and
injured more than 58 others after detonating an explosive outside a
court in Lahore on Thursday, police said.
A rescuer helps an injured man following a suicide bomb attack in Lahore.
The exact number of casualties varied, but state-run news agency the
Associated Press of Pakistan said 22 police officers and one passerby
were killed.
Reports of another explosion triggered a dash toward a supposed second
blast site, but those reports proved unfounded, said Aftab Cheema,
senior superintendent of Lahore police.
The suicide blast occurred in the city's commercial district, moments
before lawyers were set to begin a rally outside the high court in the
eastern Pakistani city to protest the rule of President Pervez Musharraf.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
Caretaker Prime Minister Mohammadmian Soomro said in a statement that
those who committed this "cowardly act" were "neither believer of any
religion nor of any human ethics."
Police said about 100 uniformed and plainclothes officers were at the
scene ahead of the rally when the bomb went off about 11:45 a.m.
Pakistan time (6:45 a.m. GMT).
The bomber was approaching a police barrier when officers stopped him,
said Cheema, and the man then blew himself up.
Ahsan Bhoon, president of the Lahore High Court Bar Association, said
lawyers had just completed a meeting and were headed out of the
courthouse to participate in the rally when he heard the blast.
Bhoon said he saw bodies scattered everywhere. At least 15 of them were
lifeless.
A second lawyer, Khurram Khosa, said he began picking up bodies of the
dead and noticed all but one of them clad in the green uniform of police
officers.
Many of the wounded were taken to Mayo Hospital in Lahore, said medical
superintendent Fayyaz Ahmad Ranjha. Two remained in critical condition
but the rest were likely to survive, Ranjha said.
Footage from the scene painted a chaotic picture, with baton-wielding
police working to beat back a crowd that was trying to get a closer look
at a burned-out white vehicle.
Officers cordoned off the area, while rescue workers carrying stretchers
with wounded victims sidestepped shards of glass that littered the
street from broken car windows.
"Lahore is typically a calm city," local journalist Todd Baer said.
"This is one of the few places in Pakistan that did not have rioting
(after the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto). So
people here are very tense right now."
In recent months, Pakistan has been besieged by a wave of suicide
attacks that has claimed several hundred lives.
The blast comes a day before the start of the month of Muharram, a holy
period of mourning, when religious tension are high.
It also follows the death of Bhutto, who was killed at a rally in
Rawalpindi, south of the Pakistani capital Islamabad, on December. 27.
While the cause of her death is still unclear, a bomber blew himself up
near her limousine and videotape showed a gunman present.
Lawyers in Lahore have been holding rallies every Thursday to protest
the government's crackdown on the judiciary and imprisonment of lawyers
and judges across the country.
Meanwhile, Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party said it had written to the
Pakistan government urging it to request an independent United Nations
inquiry, The Associated Press reported on Thursday.
The PPP warned that if the government failed to do so within 48 hours,
the party would approach the U.N. directly.