At least a dozen people were killed and nearly 70 injured in blasts in Lahore and Karachi on Tuesday evening along the route of the Tazia and Alam processions on the occasion of the martyrdom of Hazrat Imam Hussain.
Both blasts took place on the outer limits of the multi-layered security cordon put in place in the two cities in view of past attacks on the minority Shia community during similar processions.
The blast in Lahore — the first and more severe of the two — took place near Urdu Bazaar where the first security check post had been placed for worshippers heading to the Data Darbar, the shrine of the Persian Sufi saint Hazrat Syed Ali bin Usman Hajweri, for the 967th Urz Shareef. Later in the evening, the Shia procession was also slated to pass through the area on way to Karbala Gamay Shah.
Three police personnel were among the nine killed in the Urdu Bazaar blast as a teenaged suicide bomber detonated himself on being stopped at the security check post. According to the police, the suicide bomber was no more than 15 years old. He had bombs strapped to his body and was apparently also carrying a bag full of explosives.
Soon after the blast, in which 52 people including five policemen were injured, Lahore authorities sought to convince the management of Data Darbar and the Shia leadership of the city to cut short the Urs and Tazia procession respectively in view of security situation.
Within an hour of the blast in Lahore, a bomb ripped through a police vehicle in the Malir Halt area of Karachi just after a Tazia procession had passed by. Two policemen were killed and 10 people sustained injuries. Police claimed the fatalities would have been higher had the procession got delayed. Again, the blast occurred when the police stopped a motor-cyclist.
Security had been strengthened across the country in view of the Tazia processions and officials said the inability of the terrorists to break through the cordon in both cities was testimony to the high state of alert. Last year, terrorists had struck at both the Data Darbar and Karbala Gamay Shah and Tuesday's attack was yet another reminder of how sectarian violence has come to haunt Pakistan's cultural capital.
