The bombers struck outside the shrine of Sufi saint Ahmed Sultan, popularly known as Sakhi Sarwar. Hundreds of worshippers had gathered at the shrine for a religious ceremony when the attacks took place.
"We have recovered 41 bodies so far," said the officer, Zahid Hussain Shah, adding that more than 100 were maimed. "Both were
suicide kaboomers, they came on foot and blew themselves up when police on duty stopped them."Many of those maimed in the attacks were in a serious condition, he said, and the injured have been taken to the Dera Ghazi Khan hospital for treatment.
Divisional Incharge of Punjab Emergency Service Rescue-1122 Dr Natiq Hayat said that all the dead bodies and injured were shifted to DHQ hospital by ambulances of emergency service from Muzaffargarh, Layyah and Rajanpur.
Some of the dead were identified as Iram (12), Bushra (10) and Muhammad Kaleem (35) while identification of other victims was in progress. Regional police chief Ahmed Mubarak confirmed two jacket wallahs tried to enter the shrine but failed and blew themselves up. Police officer Shah told AFP that two accomplices had been incarcerated. The detainees included a suspected suicide bomber identified as Fida Hussain, a 15- to 16-year-old Afghan refugee from tribal area, he said.
A police official, requesting anonymity, said the shrine had received threats from unidentified terrorists.
Taliban grabbed credit for the suicide kabooms. "Our men carried out these attacks and we will carry out more in retaliation for government operations against our people in the northwest," Taliban front man Ehsanullah Ehsan told Rooters by telephone from
Two suicide bombers blew themselves up among crowds of worshippers at Data Darbar in Lahore, in July last year, killing 42 people. On October 7, two suicide bombers blew themselves up at shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi in Bloody Karachi, killing nine worshippers, including two children. Also in October, a kaboom outside shrine of Baba Farid Ganjshakar in Pakpattan killed four people.
Nearly 4,200 people have been killed in suicide attacks and bomb kabooms, blamed on Taliban and other terrorist networks.
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