The bomber managed to enter the park and blew himself up near the kids’ playing area where kids were on the swings.

At least 70 people were killed in a suicide attack in Gulshan-i-Iqbal Park of Allama Iqbal Town, Lahore Pakistan on Sunday evening, rescue sources said. Hospital sources added that over 250 were injured.

The attack was claimed by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan Jamaatul Ahrar.

Iqbal Town Superintendent Police Dr Muhammad Iqbal confirmed this was a suicide attack that took place at a children’s park, where a large number of families, especially women and children, were present.

The area is a renowned residential area of Lahore. The blast was just outside the exit gate and a few feet (metres) away from the children’s swings.

DCO Captain (Retd) Muhammad Usman said the head of the suicide bomber was recovered. Ball bearings were also found at the site.
Eye witnesses said there were pools of blood and scattered body parts spread across the site of the attack.

Witnesses said they could hear children screaming as people carried the injured in their arms, while frantic relatives searched for loved ones in nightmarish scenes at the park near the centre of the city.

“We carried out the Lahore attack as Christians are our target,” Ehansullah Ehsan, spokesman for the hardline Jamaat-ul-Ahrar faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location. He said the group would carry out more such attacks, vowing to target schools and colleges alongside government and military interests.

 

Religion based isms continue to kill in cold blood.

Sources : Dunya news TV, The Dawn , AFP, @ZeshanMalick