Pair of car bombings kill dozens in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Twin suicide car bombings Tuesday in Pakistan’s historic city of Lahore brought carnage to the heart of the country only days before a new government is formed.

At least 28 people were killed and more than 160 injured after bombers struck a civil intelligence agency and a house in an upscale neighborhood. The home, in an area of Lahore called Model Town, was being used as the headquarters of an advertising agency.

“Terrorism is now coming into our homes,” Salman Batalvi, the owner of the Model Town house, said in an interview.

“My gardener and two of his children are dead. I have a colleague in critical condition.”

It’s thought that Batalvi’s property was hit by mistake. Nearby is the Lahore office of the Pakistan People’s Party, which won the most seats in last month’s election. Another possible target is a house on the same road that belongs to a senior army officer who works in counterterrorism.

The main casualties came from the bombing at the Lahore offices of the Federal Investigation Agency. The whole front of the building collapsed. Children at a nearby school were among the injured.

The two bombings were almost simultaneous, around 9:30 a.m., during the morning rush hour. Experts said the tactics and sophistication of the campaign of suicide bombings in the country over the last year increasingly echoed the situation in Iraq.

So far in Pakistan nongovernmental targets mostly have been spared.

The blasts could be heard from several miles away across Lahore, the capital of Punjab, Pakistan’s most heavily populated province. Lahore also is considered Pakistan’s cultural capital. The explosion at the intelligence agency, at a busy crossroads in the middle of the city, triggered scenes of panic, followed by a spontaneous gathering to protest it.

The agency has a counterterrorism wing but it primarily is responsible for investigating other crimes, such as human trafficking. There’s speculation that terrorism suspects were under interrogation at the time inside the building.

Earlier this month, a naval college in Lahore was bombed by two men on a motorcycle. In January, a bomber walked up to a group of police officers outside the Lahore High Court and blew himself up. Previously, Lahore mostly had been spared terrorist violence, so many of its potential targets aren’t well protected.

“Despite our best efforts, such incidents cannot be ruled out, but I still say we are doing all humanly possible,” said Malik Iqbal, a senior police officer in Lahore.

“This doesn’t mean we have to surrender. We will fight back.”