LAHORE,Pakistan (Reuters) — Residents in the Pakistan city of Lahore, concerned about their safety, demanded more security on Tuesday (March 29) after an Easter Day bombing on Sunday (March 27) that killed at least 70 people in the provincial capital of country’s richest and most populous province.
Pakistan has decided to launch a paramilitary crackdown on Islamist militants in Punjab, officials said on Monday (March 28).
Security and government officials told Reuters the decision had been made to launch a full-scale operation involving the paramilitary Rangers, who would have powers to conduct raids and interrogate suspects in the same way as they have been doing in the southern city of Karachi for more than two years.
At least 29 children enjoying an Easter weekend outing were among those killed when the suicide bomber struck in a busy park in Lahore, the power base of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Pakistan is a majority-Muslim state but has a Christian population of more than two million.
Pope Francis condemned the attack as “hideous” and demanded that Pakistani authorities protect religious minorities.
On Tuesday, the park was deserted. The government closed all parks following the attack.
Most shops were closed after the Punjab government announced a three-day mourning period following the suicide bombing.
“Our government should beef up security and look after people. This was a sad incident. How uncertain is it that many people who came there for amusement were martyred (killed). It was not known which people came from where (city or town),” said Shakeel Ahmed, a resident of Lahore.
Sunday’s suicide bombing at a public park was claimed by the Pakistani Taliban’s Jamaat-ur-Ahrar faction, which once declared loyalty to Islamic State. The group said it was targeting Christians.
The brutality of the attack, Jamaat-ur-Ahrar’s fifth bombing since December, reflects the movement’s attempts to raise its profile among Pakistan’s increasingly fractured Islamist militants.
It was Pakistan’s deadliest attack since the December 2014 massacre of 134 school children at a military-run academy in the city of Peshawar that prompted a government crackdown on Islamist militancy.
“Something must be done for this. Some solid steps must be taken, like terrorists should be replied with a befitting answer. They should be caught. We are being tyrannised,” said Mohammal Ajmal, a roadside food vendor.
Rescue services spokeswoman Deeba Shahnaz said at least 29 children, seven women and 34 men had been killed and about 340 people wounded, 25 of them in serious condition.
“I work at Sheikh Zaid hospital. We received many injured there. As far as government is concerned it is taking considerable measures but nobody can stop a suicide attack. We are with the families of those who were martyred. We feel the pain,” said Nadeem, a paramedic who works at Lahore’s Sheikh Zaid hospital.
Sharif visited the wounded in hospitals and described the attackers as a “coward enemy trying for soft targets”.
Claiming responsibility on Sunday for the attack on behalf of Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan issued a direct challenge to the government: “We want to send this message to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that we have entered Lahore.”
Military spokesman Gen. Asim Bajwa said intelligence agencies, the army and Rangers had already launched several raids around Punjab following the attack, arresting an unspecified number of suspects and recovering arms caches.
Security forces have killed and arrested hundreds of suspected militants under an earlier crackdown launched after the 2014 Peshawar school massacre. Militant violence eased, but groups retain the ability to launch devastating attacks.
Most militants, like the Pakistani Taliban, want to topple the government and introduce a strict version of Islamic law.
