This year's bloodiest acts of terror in Lahore, Pakistan, have echoed in the northwest of the country. Over 10 people died at the hands of a suicide bomber in Mingore Saturday, while at least 40 were injured.
The terrorist tired to penetrate the local police station and security service building, but was stopped by security guards and blew himself up. This is the most frequently reported version of Saturday's incident, which Taliban has claimed responsibility for.
On Friday some 60 people were killed in terrorist attacks, with some 140 reported injured in Pakistan's second-biggest city Lahore, which is frequently referred to as the country's cultural capital. The figures are not final, since the condition of many of the injured is grave. The last explosion tore through the city yesterday night, when a powerful bomb was set off outside a busy marketplace. Another bomb, or rather car-bomb, parked near the very same market, went off earlier in the day.
The city special services expect more incidents since an entire group of suicide bombers infiltrated into Lahore on Thursday. They seek to launch terrorist attacks in the city's densely-populated districts. No organization has thus far claimed responsibility for the unprecedented set of blasts in just one day. Meanwhile it is obvious that the explosions were masterminded and carried out by Taliban extremists who have decided to revenge themselves this way on the Pakistani government for the antiterrorist operations in the Swat valley, in the North West of the country, on the Afghan border. The area, known as Tribal Area, is actually out of the government's control and provides shelter for terrorists. US aircraft attack the area with bombs and missiles.
But the Pakistani government has achieved quite a success in fighting the extremists in the area. Several Taliban field commanders, as well as Al-Qaeda's active militants have been either wiped out or arrested there in the past few months.
On March 8th terrorists exploded a car bomb outside Lahore's investigative office at the local police department in a clear warning that the city remains their target. The attack killed 15 people. A spokesman for the Taliban movement said that the blasts would go on until the Pakistani government called off their military operation against Taliban and until the US stopped sending its drones to strike at targets in the Tribal Area of Pakistan.
World leaders have strongly condemned the terrorist attacks in Lahore. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said, for one, that the attacks were cruel and cynical. He reiterated that Moscow was prepared to energetically take part in a build-up of the international community's efforts to counter the global terrorist threat. The United States has, for its part, urged the Pakistani authorities to step up resistance to the extremist elements. The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has supported Pakistan's struggle against extremism and spoken highly of Islamabad's police agencies' contribution to the protection of Pakistanis against violence and intimidation. What has also caught one's eye is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's statement to the effect that nothing can justify the inhuman and non-selective violence that the world community has come to face in Lahore.
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