Many of the targets of the terrorists were sectarian: Barelvi shrines, Shia rallies and Ahmedis at their worship places. Military and police personnel and hospitals were also struck by militants in 2010.
According to research conducted by The Express Tribune, there were 18 terrorist attacks including 11 suicide blasts in Lahore in 2010, in which 270 people were killed and 700 injured. Last year, 115 people were killed and around 600 injured in terrorism-related incidents.
The first bombing of 2010 in Lahore was on March 8, when a suicide blast in front of the Special Intelligence Unit office of the police in Model Town killed 15 people and injured 80.
Four days later, 62 people were killed and 90 injured as two suicide attackers blew themselves up near military vehicles at RA Bazaar in the cantonment area. On the same day, five people were injured in seven low-intensity explosions in Allama Iqbal Town and Samanabad.
Three policemen were injured when terrorists opened fire on a police checkpost in Hanjarwal police limits on May 2. On May 21, seven people were injured as five low intensity explosions went off in Tibbi City.
The biggest terrorist attack of the year in terms of loss of life was that on Ahmedi places of worship in Model Town and Garhi Shahu on May 28, when seven terrorists killed at least 95 Ahmedis and injured more than 90 with guns and grenades.
Three days later, gunmen stormed the wards of Jinnah Hospital where the injured from the May 28 attack were being treated, killing five people. According to the police, the attack was an attempt to free one of the May 28 attackers, Muaz, who was being treated at Jinnah Hospital.
Thee policemen were killed when unidentified assailants opened fire on a police checkpost in Samanabad on May 29.
Another major terrorist attack took place on July 1, when three suicide bombers killed 40 devotees and injured 175 at Data Darbar, the shrine of Lahore’s patron saint Hazrat Data Ganj Bukhsh.
A police constable was killed and at least 12 other policemen injured on July 23 as a bomb exploded in a police van outside Lytton Road police station, while gunmen attacked Gulshan-i-Ravi police station.
Two people were injured on August 19 when a low-intensity device exploded at the shrine of Khaki Shah in Green Town.
A Shia procession marking the martyrdom of Hazrat Ali (RA) near Karbala Gamay Shah was hit by two suicide bombs and grenades on September 1, killing 43 people and injuring 230.
On September 6, two low-intensity bombs exploded in Township, the first near the house of a deputy superintendent of police, the second near the office of the Bomb Disposal Squad. There were no casualties.
Another police van was destroyed in a low intensity explosion outside Shalimar police station on September 9. No one was hurt. Three people were injured in a small explosion near PML House on Davis Road on October 18.
The last incident in Lahore in 2010 suspected to have been a terrorist attack was a firing incident outside an Ahmedi house of worship in Mughalpura on November 19. There were no casualties.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 27th, 2010.
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