Relations between Pakistan and the US have been tense over the arrest in January of US diplomatic worker Raymond Davis but they are heating up, with Lahore saying he was on assignment for the CIA while Washington insists he is an embassy technical worker who has diplomatic immunity. Davis opened fire on, and killed, two men who pulled up next to him at a red light in Lahore and he has been charged with murder. The Guardian in the UK says it is now clear, based on interviews with officials from the two countries, that he was working as a spy.
Two suicide bombers hit Data Ganj Baksh, an important Sufi shrine in Lahore, Pakistan, killing at least 37 people and injuring 175 others. The bombers struck shortly before midnight, when an estimated 1,000 people were at the shrine. The bombs appear to have been detonated from inside the shrine, in the basement, causing massive damage. Sufi’s moderate approach to Islam has made it a target for fundamentalists in the country.
Links to other sites: Bloomberg, New York Times
Two bombs have killed 49 people, unofficial sources report, with the death toll rising as many of the scores of injured are in critical condition, in Lahore Pakistan. It is unclear if the blasts were two suicide bombs or one, followed by a remote-control device exploding in the heart of Lahore’s commercial centre. One bomb went off in a crowded market, where shops and motorcycles quickly caught fire, and the other near a bank, late Monday 7 December.
Fears are growing in Pakistan, reports AFP, that a series of bomb attacks around the country indicate that militants are seeking revenge this way for the government’s offensive against the Taliban. The number of deaths from several bomb attacks in Peshawar and Dera Ismail Khan 28 May has risen to 15. The new attacks follow a deadly one in Lahore earlier in the week.
Updated 15:45 Ed. note: the number of deaths is rising and is now reported to be 23. A “powerful bomb” exploded in the centre of Lahore, Pakistan’s business centre Wednesday 27 May, killing 15 people and shearing the fronts off of several buildings in the area. The blast appears to have been set off by a suicide bomber but CNN reports that it was a well-coordinated attack with gunmen involved as well. The target was a police station with some 200 people inside and the building was demolished. Lahore was the target of bombs in March 2009, for which the Taliban claimed responsibility. BBC, CNN
Five police escorts have died and six members of the Sri Lankan cricket team were injured, two reportedly with bullet wounds, after the bus taking them to the stadium in Lahore, Pakistan was attacked by what appears to have been a well-organized and well-armed group of a dozen men. AP, BBC, and background on “security beefed up” from CricketNext
