Pakistan on edge as eight killed in fresh Lahore bomb blast

At least eight people were killed and 28 injured after a bomb ripped through Pakistan’s Lahore Thursday, officials said, the tenth attack in just under a fortnight pointing to a resurgence in Islamist violence.   

The blast, the second to hit the provincial capital this month, crumpled cars and sent panic rippling through the city after the wave of attacks across Pakistan killed more than 130 people.   

The building where the bomb went off was under construction in a market crowded with people, including children.   

 Police and administration officials confirmed it was a bomb attack, as the provincial health minister Khawaja Salman Rafique and rescuers supplied the casualty toll.   

 “Four people died on the spot while another four died of their wounds in the hospital,” Rafique said.   
No group has yet claimed responsibility.   

Just over an hour later rumours of a second blast in another affluent area nearby sent ambulances racing to the scene, though authorities later said the reports were false.

Panic also spread on social media as citizens exchanged messages purporting to be warnings from intelligence agencies, including one that falsely stated a general curfew had been ordered over Lahore with shoot-on-sight orders.

The rumours underscored growing nervousness across the country as a series of assaults shook Pakistanis emboldened by what had been a prolonged lull in violence.

The attacks included a previous bomb in Lahore on February 13 which killed 14 people, and a devastating suicide blast at a Sufi shrine in Sindh province that left 90 devotees dead.
LAHORE AFP/ Feb 23, 2017