Suicide bomber strikes in Pakistan at border crossing with India

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http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2014/11/suicide_bomber_strik_9.php'>Long War Journal

Bill Roggio
November 2, 2014

 

A suicide bomber killed more than 50 people in a blast today at the Wagah border crossing in Pakistan. Two major Pakistani jihadist groups claimed credit for the attack.

The blast occurred outside of a restaurant near a checkpoint manned by Pakistani border guards. The Wagah border crossing is the only road link between Lahore and the Indian city of Amritsar.

 

"People were returning after watching the parade at Wagah border when the blast took place," the chief of police for the nearby city of Lahore said, according to Dawn. "Ball bearings were found at the scene," he continued.

Police and hospital officials said that at least 55 people were killed and 70 more were wounded in the deadly blast.

 

Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a recently formed splinter group of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, and Jundallah both claimed credit for the suicide attack in Wagah.

"Our friend Hanifullah operated this attack," Ihsanullah Ihsan, the spokesman for Jamaat-ul-Ahrar wrote in an email sent to The Long War Journal. "The [sic] is the start of attacks of TTPJA [Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan Jamaat-ul-Ahrar] and InshaAllah [God willing] we will continue such attacks in the future."

Ihsan said the suicide bombing "is the revenge of the killing of those innocent people who have been killed by Pakistan Army particularly of those who have been killed in North Waziristan."

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Spy agencies averted more deaths in Pakistan-India border bomb: sources

Aditya Kalra and Mubasher Bukhari

WAGAH India/LAHORE Pakistan Mon Nov 3, 2014

 

(Reuters) - Indian and Pakistani intelligence agencies both picked up plans for an imminent strike on their Wagah land border ahead of a suicide blast that killed 57 people on Sunday, and heightened security possibly averted a more devastating attack.

 

Pakistani police on Monday said they had recovered a "huge" cache of weapons and explosives near the border, where thousands of Indians and Pakistanis gather at dusk every day to watch a flamboyant ritual parade by their security forces.

 

Pakistani police spokeswoman Nabeela Ghazanfar said the latest death toll was 57 after the bomber detonated explosives in a car park 500 meters (yards) from the border gates and parade ground, just as hundreds of spectators were returning from the ceremony.

 

Pakistani and Indian agents, who are arch-rivals and do not share intelligence, gave conflicting accounts of whether the bomber's true intention was to cause casualties on the Indian side of the border and stir up tensions between the nuclear-armed nations.

 

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Pakistan border attack shows Islamists' strength

Islamabad claims that an ongoing military operation in the country's northwest has weakened Islamist militants. But Sunday's suicide attack at an India-Pakistan border crossing tells a different story

11/3/14

 

There has been a relative lull in terrorist attacks in Pakistan since June when the South Asian country's army began an offensive against militants in its restive northwestern region of Waziristan. Since then, the government has been claiming that operation "Zarb-e-Azb" has crippled the Pakistani Taliban and the numerous al Qaeda affiliated groups. It also says that the capacity of these banned outfits to launch attacks - which have lost 1,100 militants over the past four months - has also been significantly reduced.

 

But experts say that the suicide bombing on Sunday at the India-Pakistan Wagah border proved that the jihadist organizations in Pakistan are still quite potent. The attack was massive and left a grisly scene in its wake. At least 60 people - including women and children - were killed and more than 130 were wounded.

 

Revenge attacks

 

The border crossing in the eastern Pakistani town of Wagah is a highly secured area. Huge crowds gather on both sides of the border to watch the display of military pageantry every evening. The fact that the suicide bomber could enter an area manned by Pakistani soldiers and paramilitary forces, and was able to detonate his explosives, not only highlighted the security failure, but also that the Pakistani extremists are still strong despite operation "Zarb-e-Azb."

 

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