Pakistani police officers tend to their wounded colleague in the aftermath of a suicide bomb explosion Thursday, Jan. 10, 2008, in Lahore, Pakistan. A suicide bomber blew himself up among police guards deployed in front of a court in eastern Pakistan ahead of a planned protest by lawyers Thursday, killing at least 22 people and wounding dozens more, officials and witnesses said. (AP Photo/K.M. Choudary)By Asif Shahzad
LAHORE, Pakistan Jan 10, 2008 (AP)
A suspected Islamic militant walked into a crowd of police guarding a courthouse and blew himself up Thursday, killing 24 others and wounding dozens in the first major attack in Pakistan since the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
The blast at Lahore High Court, minutes before a planned anti-government rally by lawyers, was a bloody reminder of the security threats facing this key U.S. ally ahead of Feb. 18 parliamentary elections.
Echoing an extremist tactic in Iraq, suicide attacks have become as commonplace in Pakistan as in neighboring Afghanistan, adding to rising pressures on President Pervez Musharraf as he struggles to stay in office eight years after seizing power in military coup.
At least 20 suicide bombers have struck the past three months in attacks that killed 400 people, many of them from the security forces the most intense period of terror strikes here since Pakistan allied with the U.S. in its war against al-Qaida and other extremist groups in 2001. Read more ...
Source: AP