Lahore shuts in mourning; call for countrywide strike
LAHORE: Lahore woke up with a mix of outrage and resilience on Friday over the previous night’s attacks on the Data Darbar that left over 40 people dead.
Widespread demonstrations and a shutdown in major commercial centres captured the feeling of a battered city: the strike on its heart was one too many.
Demonstrations were also held in towns and cities across the country. Law enforcement agencies carried out swoops in Lahore and other major towns in Punjab, taking into custody 30 suspects.
The Sunni Ittehad Council, a conglomerate of over 20 groups, gave a call for countrywide strike for Saturday. Several professional and trade bodies, including the PML-N traders’ wing, declared their support to the call.
Leaders of all political and religious parties and seminaries were at one in condemning the bombings.
Students belonging to seminaries took to the streets after Friday prayers, blocking a number of roads and burning tyres.
Top Sunni leaders attended a rally outside the Data Darbar and staged a sit-in along with hundreds of furious protesters. Slogans calling for resignations by the president, the prime minister and the Punjab chief minister rent the air.
PROBE: Police detained relatives of one Mohammad Rafiq alias Usman, 20, suspecting that he was one of the suicide bombers, but freed them after learning that he was a victim.
Rafiq’s brother Mohammad Latif, who was in police custody, denied that his brother was a terrorist. “Rafiq visits the Data Darbar every Thursday and he was also one of the victims.”
Senior Superintendent of Police Zulifqar Hameed confirmed that Rafiq was a victim, although his department had issued the man’s identikit to newspapers, claiming that he was a terrorist.
A spokesman for the Punjab government said the terror suspects who had been arrested included ‘suicide bombers’ and their ‘handlers’.
“They are key members of a number of gangs involved in major incidents of terrorism in the province.”
He said those arrested included suspects wanted for the suicide bombing on the Parade Lane mosque in Rawalpindi.
He said the suspects were found in possession of a large quantity of arms and ammunition, weighing about 22 tons. Uniforms of security agencies were also recovered.
“Valuable information about various gangs of terrorists has been extracted.”
The spokesman, by way of self-congratulation, claimed the arrest of such a large number of suspects was “a big achievement” that would help in curbing terrorism.
Agencies add: The scenes of carnage at the Data Darbar were caught on camera by closed circuit televisions which recorded the bombers in the final moments before they blew themselves up.
The dramatic footage shows a security guard at the shrine chasing after one of the bombers shortly before a huge blast which sent crowds of panicked worshippers fleeing in all directions.
The images broadcast by television channels were obtained from close circuit television cameras installed at the Data Ganj Bakhsh shrine.
They showed hundreds of white-robed devotees crowding into the centuries-old mausoleum before the blast.
A guard identified as Salim Raza, who was posted at an entry gate equipped with a scanner, detected a suspicious man clad in a green turban, white robes and a shawl and carrying a bag.
He ran after the bomber who seconds later detonated his explosives, engulfing the site in a huge cloud of white smoke and leaving the white marble floor splattered with blood, body parts and people’s belongings. The authorities said they were investigating how they managed to penetrate into the area despite strict security measures.
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