Two powerful blasts in Lahore, killed 39

LAHORE: Two powerful blasts went off near a crowded mosque within the heavily-guarded cantonment in Lahore on Friday, killing at least 39 people and injuring almost 100 others in the latest in a slew of terror attacks across Pakistan.

"Thirty-nine people were killed and 95 wounded in the attacks," Punjab provincial police chief Tariq Saleem Dogar told reporters on live TV.

"We have collected concrete technical evidence, which will help identify the attackers. Both the attackers were on foot," he added.

The blasts occurred in R A Bazar area at 12.48 pm local time, when a large number of people had gathered for Friday prayers in the mosque. Many army personnel were in the gathering, local residents said.

The wounded were taken to nearby military and civilian hospitals.

There were reports that the blasts were preceded by firing but this could not immediately be independently confirmed.

Army soldiers and military police cordoned off the area and barred people and media from going to the site of the blasts.

Footage on television showed ambulances removing bodies and the injured from the area.

All roads and entry points in the cantonment are guarded by the army and it could not be immediately ascertained how the attackers managed to evade the security dragnet.

An emergency was declared in hospitals across Lahore.

No group has, so far, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Lahore has witnessed several terrorist assaults since last year, with most of the attacks targeting government installations and offices of sensitive organisations like the Inter-Services Intelligence and Federal Investigation Agency.

Today's attack was similar to another terrorist assault last year on a mosque frequented by army personnel in Rawalpindi. Several senior army officials were killed in that attack.

Other parts of the country have also been rocked by such attacks since the military launched a massive operation against the Taliban stronghold of South Waziristan in October last year. Hundreds of people have died in these attacks.