24 killed, 200 injured in 2 bombings in eastern Pakistan
Last Updated: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 | 2:10 PM ET
CBC News
At least 24 people were killed and more than 200 wounded in two suicide bomb blasts at a federal police building and in a residential area in an eastern Pakistani city on Tuesday, police said.
Pakistani volunteers and a police officer stand beside a burning car at the site of suicide bombing at the office of the Federal Investigation Agency on Tuesday in Lahore, Pakistan.
(Associated Press)
In the first bombing, an explosives-packed car was driven into a parking lot and detonated next to the Federal Investigation Agency building in downtown Lahore, killing at least 21 people, police said. A three-year-old girl and 16 police officers were among the dead, according to officials.
About 200 people were wounded in the blast, including 32 elementary school girls who were struck by flying debris, doctors said. A number of homes in the area were also damaged. People were just getting into work when the bomb went off, tearing off the facade of the multi-storey concrete building.
Fifteen minutes later, a bomb went off at the office of an advertising agency in a residential neighbourhood, less than 45 metres from a residence owned by Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and co-chairman of her Pakistan Peoples Party. He was not home at the time.
An injured man is helped by another man as they run away after a suicide bombing at the office of the Federal Investigation Agency on Tuesday in Lahore.
(Associated Press)
Three more people died, including two children, in the suspected suicide bombing, police said.
One police official said that two suicide bombers drove a pickup truck close to the house and detonated their explosives.
Islamic militants have increasingly been mounting attacks along the Afghan border.
Last week, a double suicide attack in Lahore killed four people at a navy training college. On Jan. 10, a militant walked into a crowd of police guarding a courthouse and blew himself up, killing 24.
With files from the Associated Press
