Lahore (AsiaNews / Agencies) - This morning at dawn a car bomb hit the Federal Investigation Agency headquarters in Lahore. Official sources said that the toll is 11 dead, including a woman and a child, and at least 60 wounded. The attack bears the hallmark of al Qaeda militants, backed by Pakistani Taliban who are seeking to overthrow the government through bombings and repeated violent attacks.
Khusro Pervaiz, an official of the provincial government, said that "clearly, the target of the attack was the investigating agency. The attack is a psychological blow for the Pakistani authorities who have recently won a series of successes against Islamist militias. A battle that has the consent of the U.S. government, which has welcomed the capture of leading figures among the Afghan Taliban.
The explosion left a deep crater in the road in front of the headquarters of the Federal Investigation Agency - Pakistani intelligence - and has destroyed the facade of the building. In the past the intelligence agency had already suffered two separate attacks.
A group of citizens has railed against the police that arrived in the meantime on the scene. The government building is located in the suburb of Model Town, Lahore, in an area with a high population density. A woman reports that "several times in the past we asked that it be moved away from our homes, but they have not done anything."
In 2009, in Lahore there were at least three bloody attacks: March 3 armed commandos killed six police in an ambush on the Sri Lanka cricket team. On 30 March a group targeted the police academy, killing eight people. On May 27 a car bomb exploded near a police barracks, causing at least 23 victims.
In two and a half years, Pakistan has registered some 360 attacks, in which more than 3 thousand people have been killed. Most were suicide attacks perpetrated by the Taliban in Pakistan engaged in an armed conflict against the army in the tribal areas on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.