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| India-Pakistan | |
| Lahore attackers were Pakistani Taleban: Police | |
| 2010-05-30 | |
LAHORE: Police say the men who attacked two mosques of a religious minority in Pakistan's east belonged to the Pakistani Taleban.
Senior police officer Akram Naeem said Saturday one of the captured attackers said the men had trained in North Waziristan, a region where the U.S. wants Islamabad to mount an army operation. Leaders of Pakistan's minority Ahmadi sect demanded better government protection Saturday as they buried many of the 93 sect members killed by Islamist militants at two of the group's mosques. The request could test the government's willingness to take on hard-line Islamists whose influence is behind decades of state-sanctioned discrimination against the Ahmadis in the Sunni Muslim-majority country. The attacks occurred minutes apart Friday in two neighborhoods in the eastern city of Lahore. Two teams of gunmen, including some in suicide vests, stormed the mosques and sprayed bullets at worshippers while holding off police. Thirteen people died overnight at hospitals, raising the death toll to 93, said Raja Ghalab Ahmad, a local sect leader. Dozens were hurt. Waseem Sayed, a U.S.-based Ahmadi spokesman, said it was the worst attack in the group's 121-year history. Local TV channels reported that the Pakistani Taliban, or their Punjab province branch, had claimed responsibility. Ahmad called on the government to take action against the militant group, which also has attacked security, government and foreign targets throughout the country in recent years. “Are we not the citizens of Pakistan?' he asked at the site of the attacks in the Garhi Shahu section of Lahore. “We do have the right to be protected, but unfortunately we were not given this protection.' | |
| Posted by:Steve White |