Pakistan: Suicide bomb explodes on mall road in Lahore - multiple dead including top policemen

The Times of India 

At least 16 dead, several injured in blast in Pakistan's Lahore

TNN & Agencies | Updated: Feb 13, 2017, 08.45 PM IST

Highlights

1. The blast occurred during a protest by drug-chemist association members outside Punjab Assembly.
2. DIG Traffic Lahore Capt (retd) Ahmad Mobin was killed in the attack along with SSP Gondal of Punjab Police.
3. Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, a faction of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack.

The blast occurred during a protest by drug-chemist association members outside Punjab Assembly. (Photo: ANI)

NEW DELHI: At least sixteen people, including two top cops, were killed and several others injured in an explosion on Monday when a suicide bomber blew himself up during a protest rally outside the Punjab Assembly building in eastern Pakistan, police officials said.

Lahore Traffic Police chief capt (R) Mobeen Ahmed and Senior Superintendent Police Lahore Zahid Gondal were killed in the blast that targeted police personnel.

"Deputy Inspector General and Lahore police chief Mobeen Ahmed has been killed in the blast," Lahore police chief Amin Wains said.

He, however, did not confirm about other casualties. "I can confirm the death of Ahmed at the moment," Wains said.

DIG Ahmed had survived an attempt to his life during his posting in Balochistan.

A Lahore police officer said that apparently it was a suicide attack and the bomber targeted the police personnel present there. "The target was not the protest demonstration but the police officers," he added.

 Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanullah confirmed that it was suicide blast and 'some police officers' have been killed.

"The chemists were protesting against the controversial drug regulations the government has recently imposed when a powerful blast took place. Several protesters were lying on the road before the rescuers shifted them," said Ishtiaq Ahmed, a representative of the Lahore Chemist Association.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, a faction of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack. The group had also claimed responsibility for an Easter Day bombing in Lahore last year that killed more than 70 people in a public park.

India: Kahmir's Sopore is a town living in fear from Tehreek-e Taliban with their daily posters of what's permissible and what's not

The Times of India

Kahmir's Sopore is a town living in fear

M Saleem Pandit,TNN | Jun 10, 2015, 07.18 AM IST

SOPORE: The north Kashmir town of Sopore and its fringes, famous for apple orchards, is once again witnessing a reign of fear; only, this time, the portents are grimmer. New terror groups have arrived that sound chillingly like ISIS, with their daily posters of what's permissible and what's not. From a dress code to use of mobile phones, these ISIS clones issue dire warnings to all, with non-Kashmiri labourers told in clear, cold terms to leave the state.

In their latest decree, the terror groups have warned of attacks on petrol pumps, cable operators and alcohol shops. The posters, which appeared on June 6 under the banner of Tehreek-e Taliban (TeT), asked pump owners not to refuel vehicles of Indian military and police personnel.

TeT has also ordered locals not to rent their premises to "outsiders" and, even more bizarrely , warned tailors not to take measurements of women who want clothes stitched. This followed a diktat prohibiting women from wear ing body-hugging clothes. The posters further warned cable operators against telecasting Indian shows, and ordered liquor shops to shut down immediately.

Sopore cable operators travelled to Srinagar on Monday to inform hardline separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani about the TeT warnings. A Sopore doctor, who didn't want to be named, said, "The situation is turning bad. Militants are seen roaming around the town with automatic rifles. Things are going to get worse," he presaged, saying well-off business families were talking about leaving Sopore for safer places. Migrant workers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are exiting in droves, creating another set of problems for locals who depend on their skills, from carpentry to farming. As a result, people are refusing to say or do anything that would earn the wrath of terrormongers. It's almost as if the clock has been rewound to 1990, the Valley's worst year of terror.

This week began with the cable network shut, and no public use of cell phones after a girl was attacked in the main market by two scooter-borne men who also snatching her phone. On Tuesday, gunmen shot and killed health department employee Altaf Rehman Sheikh, 45. "He was working as an overground worker for the militants, and his father is a staunch Jamat-e-Islami activist who had returned from Pakistan in 2004," an intelligence officer told TOI.

Atop administrative official said Sopore and its periphery have become a safe haven for terrorists owing allegiance to Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Taiba. Security agencies have categorized Sopore as highly "terrorist infested".