Pakistan mosque attacks kill 80
30 May 2010 | 
Author: Professor |
CBC News 30 May, 2010
At least 80 people are dead after armed attackers stormed two mosques packed with hundreds of people in eastern Pakistan on Friday, local officials say.
Sajjad Bhutta, deputy commissioner of Lahore, said at least 78 people were wounded in the assaults, which targeted the Ahmadi Islamic sect.
At least seven attackers were involved in Friday's assaults on mosques in the Model Town and Garhi Shahu neighbourhoods of Lahore, police said.
The assault at Model Town was brief, and involved four attackers spraying worshippers with bullets before exploding hand grenades, Bhutta said.
Several kilometres away at Garhi Shahu, the standoff dragged on for hours, as police traded gunfire with at least three attackers. Bhutta said the attackers wore jackets packed full of ammunition and explosives and held several people hostage.
"They fought the police for some time, but on seeing they were being defeated they exploded themselves," he said.
It is not immediately clear whether police have been able to secure the buildings, and officials haven't provided any information about what happened to the people who were held hostage.
Police have warned that the death toll could rise as security officials and emergency workers sweep the area.
Members of the Ahmadi Islamic sect are often viewed as heretics by other Muslim groups, and Pakistan's government declared the group a non-Muslim minority in the 1970s.
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