Suicide attack in Lahore kills 20, wounds 60
Lahore (AsiaNews) – A suicide bomber in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore targeted the High Court building. Early reports say that at least 20 people were killed and more than 60 wounded. Local security officials believe the attack to be a response to protests by supporters of slain People’s Party leader Benazir Bhutto; previously they and Pakistani lawyers had demonstrated for a return to “real democracy.”
Today’s attack was the latest in a series of similar incidents that have rocked Pakistan in the past few weeks. Similarly, clashes between Sunnis and Shiites have been rising and members of the country’s minorities have been targeted. All in all inter-ethnic strife is up. And for many analysts all this is bound to get worse as Election Day approaches.
The government is quite aware of the situation. In response it issued yesterday a decree restricting the movement of 204 ulemas, both Sunni and Shia, who can no longer leave their district of residence within Sindh province. Some 400 Muslim religious leaders in Punjab, Waziristan, Balochistan and Kashmir have been banned from entering the aforementioned province.
“This ban has been placed considering the already volatile law and order situation that could be triggered through their speeches,” said a government spokesman.
Sindh caretaker Home Minister Akhtar Zamin said that since the government is responsible for protecting human lives and property, and for this reason it instituted special security arrangements to prevent massacres.
In a related matter caretaker federal Prime Minister Muhammad Mian Soomro has appointed Amar Lal, a Hindu, as his special adviser to monitor the process of registration and reforms of madrassas, which have come in for strong criticism as hotbeds of terrorism.
The appointment of a Hindu as an adviser on religious affairs might however prompt serious negative reaction among Muslim religious circles.
Even within the current government the appointment has raised eyebrows. Federal Religious Affairs Secretary Wakil Ahmad Khan has said for instance that he had not been told about any “special adviser to monitor registration of madrassas.”
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