Coming soon to a crowded food market in a non-Muslim country near you. “Bomb in Pakistan’s Lahore kills one, wounds 13, say police,” from AFP, October 10:
A bomb exploded in a bustling food market in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore on Thursday, killing one person and wounding 13 others, officials said.
The blast hit Anarkali bazaar in the old city area of Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city and capital of relatively peaceful Punjab province.
Doctor Tahir Bilal told AFP that one dead body and 13 injured have been brought to Lahore’s Mayo Hospital.
“Condition of some of those wounded is critical,” Bilal said, adding that one woman was among the injured.
Senior police officer Rai Tahir confirmed the death toll and said the bomb appeared to have been a relatively low-powered device.
TV footage showed broken tables and chairs outside a small restaurant in the street of food shops and stalls, where a bombing in July killed five people and wounded nearly 50 others.
That attack was the worst bombing in Lahore since a teenage suicide attacker targeted a Shiite Muslim religious procession on January 25, 2011, killing at least nine people….
Pakistan’s main political parties last month backed a government proposal to seek negotiations with Mehsud’s Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group, who have been waging a bloody insurgency against the state since 2007.
The TTP faction responded with a list of preconditions, including a government ceasefire and the withdrawal of troops from the tribal areas along the Afghan border where the militants have hideouts.
Moreover, a spate of bloody attacks have cast doubt on the proposed dialogue, though senior ministers have said they are keen to press ahead….
Keen to surrender, that is.