A police building in Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city, was attacked by a suicide bomber today, leaving 11 dead and over 60 injured. Many of the wounded were women and children on their way to school. According to Interior Minister Rehman Malik, the attack was targeting the Special Investigative Agency, which was operating out of a house in an affluent section of Model Town due to the shortage of government office space. The blast left a crater in the ground and caused damage to neighboring buildings, with estimates that there was 600-800 kg of explosives in the attacker’s car. Lahore has been set on high-security alert, and officials are appealing to citizens to donate blood for the wounded.
The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility and promised more attacks. Lahore has been hit several times by such attacks, and this is at least the second such bomb blast in Model Town. Recently, such attacks have been prevalent in the areas near Afghanistan, even though earlier attacks had been focused on major cities in Pakistan. The attacks continue as Pakistan cracks down on the Afghani Taliban and Al-Qaeda operatives.