Survivors turn anger on police

Angry mourners beat policemen and set fire to a police station following multiple bomb blasts in Lahore on Wednesday.

LAHORE: Angry mourners beat up policemen and set fire to a police station following multiple bomb blasts targeting a Shia procession on Wednesday night.

Some 12,000 policemen were especially deployed in the city to guard processions marking the anniversary of the martyrdom of Hazrat Ali (RA), but they were unable to stop two suicide bombers from killing 29 people and injuring close to 200 in coordinated attacks near Karbala Gamay Shah, Bhati Gate and Data Darbar over a 30-minute period after Iftar.

Soon after the attacks, angry survivors began shouting anti-police slogans and attacking uniformed policemen. Television footage showed several men punching and kicking a policeman as he lay on the ground. A deputy superintendent of police was reported injured. The rioters invaded the Lower Mall police station, poured petrol over furniture and documents and set it on fire. They also burnt three vehicles and a motorcycle in the parking lot. Several policemen fled the scene on foot in fear for their lives.

“If police cannot protect us, then they have no right to these facilities,” said one eyewitness, Ali Abbas. He blamed police negligence for the blasts.

Police reinforcements eventually arrived from headquarters and used teargas and aerial firing to disperse the crowd. Eyewitnesses said people were injured in the police action. The Punjab home secretary later called in the Rangers to control security in the city.

Smaller protests were also reported in other parts of the Walled City where mourning processions were being held.

Lahore revenue commissioner Khusro Perviaz admitted that there had been a security failure. The police guards might have let down their guard after Iftar, thinking that an attack was now unlikely since the procession had ended. He appealed to citizens to donate blood at hospitals treating the injured.

Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan said the police had tried their best to protect the mourners and it was unfair to say there had been a security failure.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 2^nd, 2010.