At least two people were killed and 22 injured in a bomb explosion on Thursday in a commercial district of Lahore (east), Pakistan’s second largest city, police and hospital sources said.
“Initial investigations show that the explosion was caused by a device equipped with a timing device and placed on a motorcycle,” Rana Arif, spokesperson for the Lahore police, told AFP.
Local police and a hospital source said two people were killed, including a 9-year-old child, and 22 injured in the blast outside a bank in the Anarkali district.
“No group has yet claimed responsibility for this attack,” added Mr. Rana.
But Pakistan has been confronted for several weeks with the return in force of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Pakistani Taliban, galvanized by the coming to power of the Taliban in August in Afghanistan.
The TTP, a separate movement from the new Afghan leadership, has claimed responsibility for several attacks since the start of the week alone, including one on Monday against a police checkpoint in Islamabad, in which a policeman was killed and two injured. .
This kind of incident is rare in the capital, placed under heavy police surveillance due to the presence of dozens of foreign embassies, and where security had improved in recent years.
Pakistani Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed warned on Tuesday of the possibility of further attacks.
“This is a sign that terrorist activities have started in Islamabad,” he told reporters. “This is the first terrorist attack this year and we must remain vigilant.”
The Pakistani government agreed to a month-long truce with the TTP late last year, but that ended on Dec. 9 after no progress was made in peace talks.