Suicide bombers attack the famous Lahore Sufi shrine of Shaykhl Al Hujwiri known as Data Gunj Baksh

July 1, 2010

At least 35 people have been killed and at least 175 people injured by suicide bombers in a Sufi Shrine in Lahore, Pakistan.

The bombing is the first time that a shrine has been attacked in the city of Lahore. Both Sunni and Shiite Muslims worship at the shrine, which holds the remains of Abul Hassan Ali Hajvery, a Persian Sufi.

The Pakistani government had congratulated itself for getting through the entire month of June without a single suicide bombing shortly before the shrine was attacked. The BBC reports as follows on the latest attack.

Khusro Pervez, commissioner of Lahore, said two of the attacks took place in the main courtyard and one in the lower level of the shrine. The first attacker struck in the underground area where visitors sleep and prepare themselves for prayer, he said. As people fled, a second bomber detonated his explosives in the upstairs area.

The attackers laced their bombs with ball bearings and other shrapnel to maximize casualties. The last suicide attack in Lahore was in May on a mosque belonging to the Ahmadi sect, which is condemned as heretical by Muslim extremists. Today’s attack is a clear sign that the war against terrorism in Pakistan is far from finished. It also demonstrates the malignant quality of religious intolerance. First the Ahmadi sect came under attack in May. Today, in the same city, believers from the mainstream of Islam, both Shiite and Sunni were murdered indiscriminately by suicide bombers. Whatever god these suicide bombers claim to worship, it is one of their own making.

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