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PAKISTAN-BLAST WRAP
Suicide blast at popular Pakistani shrine kills at least 10
LAHORE, Pakistan, May 8, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A suicide blast at one of
Pakistan’s oldest and most popular Sufi shrines killed at least 10 people and
wounded 24 in the eastern city of Lahore Wednesday, police said, in an attack
claimed by the Pakistani Taliban.
The blast — which a faction of the militant group claimed by email —
occurred near the entrance gate for female visitors to the 11th-century Data
Darbar shrine, one of the largest Sufi shrines in South Asia, as the country
marks the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
Husks of vehicles littered the pavement near the shrine as first
responders rushed to the scene while armed security forces fanned out in the
area.
The shrine has long been home to colourful Sufi festivals and a prime
destination for the country’s myriad Muslim sects, making it a soft target
for militant attacks.
It has been targeted previously, in a 2010 suicide attack which killed
more than 40 people.
Since then the area has been increasingly hemmed in by heavy security,
with visitors forced to pass through several layers of screening before they
can enter the complex.
Sufi worshippers, who follow a mystical strain of Islam, have frequently
been the target of bloody attacks in Pakistan by Islamist militants —
including the Islamic State group — who consider Sufi beliefs and rituals at
the graves of Muslim saints as heresy.
Senior police official Muhammad Ashfaq told a press conference that the
security personnel at the shrine were targeted.
Three police officials, two security guards and five civilians including a
child were among the dead, Punjab province chief minister Usman Buzdar said.
Pakistan’s push against extremism was stepped up after the country’s
deadliest ever attack, an assault on a school in Peshawar in 2014 that left
more than 150 people dead — mostly children.
Since then, security has dramatically improved but militants retain the
ability to carry out dramatic attacks.
Major urban centres such as Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city and the
provincial capital of its wealthiest province, Punjab, are not immune.
An attack in the city in March last year left nine people dead, while a
major blast targeting Christians celebrating Easter in a park in 2016 killed
more than 70 people.
Critics have long argued the military and government crackdown has not
addressed the root causes of extremism in Pakistan, where hardline Muslim
groups often target religious minorities.
The Data Darbar complex contains the shrine of Saint Syed Ali bin Osman
Al-Hajvery, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh. Originally from Afghanistan,
he was one of the most popular Sufi preachers on the subcontinent.
Tens of thousands of pilgrims visit the shrine each spring to mark his
death anniversary, while it is also crowded weekly with worshippers listening
to qawwali, a traditional form of Islamic devotional music.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1428 hrs