80 die in Lahore mosque attacks
At least 80 persons — most of them belonging to the Ahmadiya community — were killed and scores of others injured when heavily armed Taliban gunmen wearing suicide vests stormed two Lahore mosques packed with members of the minority community. This was the first major terrorist attack in Lahore since March.
The Tehrik-e-Taliban claimed responsibility for the twin attacks in the residential neighbourhoods of Model Town and Garhi Shahu while the bloodshed was on. A retired lieutenant-general of the Pakistan Army and a journalist working with a Lahore-based TV channel, besides several policemen, were among the dead.
Over 20 people died in the Model Town attack, while more than 40 were killed in the more heavily-congested Garhi Shahu. The injured were taken to five different Lahore hospitals.
Firing indiscriminately from automatic rifles and lobbing grenades, the gunmen militants ran into the two mosques situated miles apart in coordinated attacks soon after Friday prayers had begun around 1.45 pm, seized hostages and set off running battles with the police. At least 1,500 people were gathered there at the time.
The police said later that two gunmen were arrested and another killed at Model Town. Some other attackers are believed to have escaped.
One of them fired at a television van before the police retook control. Witnesses said eight to 10 terrorists were involved in the twin attack. Three attackers at Garhi Shahu blew themselves up by detonating their suicide vests.
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