In one of the deadliest co-ordinated attacks, two groups of terrorists targeted mosques at the heavily congested Garhi Shahu and the posh Model Town area around 1:45 pm local time when worshippers were about to start the prayers.
Reports received from different hospitals put the death toll at “around 80”, District Administration chief Sajjad Bhutta told reporters. Other officials said nearly 100 people were injured, some of them seriously.
A retired lieutenant general of the Pakistan Army was killed when the terrorists stormed the mosque in Model Town. A journalist of a Lahore-based TV channel was wounded while covering the assault at Garhi Shahu and later died of injuries.
A Punjabi faction of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attacks, Geo News channel reported. Witnesses said eight to 10 terrorists were involved in the attacks. Three attackers at Garhi Shahu blew themselves up by detonating their suicide vests. Their heads were found by investigators, Bhutta said.
At least two attackers were arrested at Model Town and one them was injured, provincial Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said. The injured attacker was operated on at Jinnah
Hospital. The fate of the remaining attackers could not be ascertained.
The injured were taken to five hospitals, where doctors performed emergency surgeries on several persons with serious wounds. Seven policemen, including Superintendent of Police Haider Ashraf, were injured in the exchange of fire with the terrorists. Police brought the situation at the Model Town mosque under control a little over an hour after the attack.
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