LAHORE: At least 65 people were killed and over 70 others injured, 22 of them seriously, when two separate groups of fidayeen attackers belonging to the Tehrik Taliban attacked two mosques [during Friday prayers]of the minority Muslim Ahmadi community in Model Town and Garhi Shahu areas of Lahore, the capital of Pakistan’s Punjab province.
Thousands of worshippers, including women and children, were at Friday prayers when the raids at the two mosques began. The Ahmedi community, which is also called Qadiani community, was declared non-Muslims in Pakistan way back in 1974. Since then the Ahmadi sect has experienced years of state-sanctioned discrimination and occasional attacks by extremist Sunnis. Its four million-odd members have seen their religious rights in overwhelmingly Muslim Pakistan curtailed by law. Usually described as the heart of Punjab, Lahore has witnessed a series of fidayeen style terrorist attacks in recent months, almost all of which were carried out by the TTP. It is for the first time in recent years that any Ahmedi-run place of worship has been attacked, and that too, on such a large scale and coordinated fashion. Commander Hakeemullah Mehsud-led Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has already claimed responsibility for both the attacks.
Numerous explosions were heard at the crime scenes in Model Town and Garhi Shahu and gunfire continued for hours, with images of at least two gunmen firing at police from the roof of one of the mosques. The police sources say gunmen opened fire shortly after Friday prayers and threw grenades at two mosques in residential neighbourhoods in Lahore, the cultural capital of Punjab and the second largest city of the country. One mosque is located in the upscale neighbourhood of Model Town and the second in the heavily congested walled city area of Garhi Shahu. At least one dozen heavily armed fidayeen attackers carrying hand grenades and automatic weapons, some of them wearing suicide jackets, stormed mosques in Model Town and Gardhi Shahu in two separate groups of seven and five respectively, hurling grenades and firing at worshippers who had gathered to offer Friday prayers. As a result, 23 people were killed in Model Town and 42 in Garhi Shahu. Two senior superintendents of the Lahore police were seriously injured during gunbattles with the attackers.
At the Garhi Shahu mosque, the attackers took hostage many of the Ahmedi worshipers and assumed control of the building. One of the attackers climbed atop the minaret of the mosque, started firing with an assault rifle and throwing hand grenades. The police force took almost three hours to kill the hostage takers and assume control of the mosque. However, some police officers say two of the fidayeen attackers at Garhi Shahu mosque had blown themselves up to avoid being arrested. One of the seriously injured Model Town attackers was arrested and taken to Jinnah hospital where he has been operated but is stated to be in critical situation. Another suspicious person was arrested from outside the Model Town mosque who is being interrogated by the Lahore police for his possible links to the attackers.
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