Three blasts kill 41, injure 100 in Pakistan
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Islamabad, April 3, IRNA -- Three bomb blasts, targeting people at a shrine in Pakistan’s Punjab province, killed at least 41 people and injured 100 others on Sunday, chief of the rescue team said.
The bombs ripped through the shrine in district Dera Ghazi Khan district where hundreds of people were gathered for religious rituals, the rescue official, Dr Natiq Hayat said. He said that children and women were among the dead.
TV channels said that 36 people were killed in the attacks. TV footage showed injured being taken to hospitals.
Police officials said there is a strong possibility that suicide bombers have attacked the Sakhi Sarwar shrine, some 40 kilometers from Dera Ghazi Khan.
Hayat said that scores of the injured are in critical conditions and the death toll may rise.
The injured were sent to district headquarters in Dera Ghazi Khan and Multan, another main city in the region.
Ambulances were called from several main cities in the region to shift the injured to hospitals.
A field hospital was also set up near the blast site to treat the minor injured, Monitoring in-Charge Rescue teams, Mohammad Ahsan, said. He said that death toll may rise as 35 injured are critically injured. He said that women and children were among the injured.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks so far.
Taliban militants have regularly attacked shrines in the past as they are against people visiting shrines.
Witnesses said that the police arrested a would-be suicide bomber from the shrine and was shifted for questioning. They also said the attacks caused damage to the shrine. Police said that a hand grenade was also recovered from the suspect and the bomb disposal squad defused the device. A witness said that the bomber was arrested by the police before detonating his explosive-laden jacket.
Doctors, who had gone on strike for pay raise, suspended their strike to treat the injured, officials said.
There are conflicting reports about the nature of the blast. Some police sources and TV channels said that first a bomber struck the shrine and later two hand grenades were thrown on the people.
Prime Minister, Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, strongly condemned the bomb blast that such cowardly acts of terror clearly demonstrate that the culprits involved neither have any faith nor any believe in human values.
“The killing of innocent and helpless human beings exhibit the mindset of coward and evil nature of the terrorists,” Gilani said in a statement.
The Prime Minister said such violent acts only seem to be conspiracy to divide the society and create fear. The nation, he said, is determined and united to fight this menace and eliminate it permanently.
The Prime Minister directed the concerned law enforcement agencies to investigate into the incident and apprehend the coward terrorist. He also asked the concerned officials to take care of those injured. He expressed condolences and sympathies with the affected families.
**2050
Islamic Republic News Agency/IRNA NewsCode: 30320486
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