A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded park in Lahore on Sunday evening, killing at least 69 people and injuring 300\u00a0others,\u00a0Salman Rafiq, health minister of Pakistan\u2019s Punjab province, has said.<\/p>\n
According to police, the bomber detonated his explosive-laden vest in a crowded area of Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, located in a northern district of Lahore, Pakistan\u2019s second largest city and the regional capital of Punjab province.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Jamaat ul-Ahrar, a group affiliated with Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for Sunday\u2019s bombing — an unusual occurrence in an otherwise peaceful part of the country. \u00a0According to Anadolu Agency,<\/em> The group’s spokesman, Ihsanullah Ihsan, said the target of the attack was an Easter celebration.<\/p>\n The injured, 25 of whom are in critical condition, included several women and children.<\/p>\n Footage broadcast on local television channels showed rescue workers and concerned citizens loading the dead and injured onto ambulances.<\/p>\n The government, for its part, has declared a state of emergency at the city\u2019s hospitals while doctors predict a dramatic rise in the current death toll.<\/p>\n The army, meanwhile, has been called up to assist in first-aid and rescue efforts.<\/p>\n Army chief presided over an emergency meeting after the blast, reportedly directing intelligence agencies\u00a0to speed up\u00a0efforts to dismantle the networks involved in the terrorist attack.\u00a0He woved the culprits involved in the\u00a0attack will be brought to justice.<\/p>\n Pieces of human flesh and blood-soaked clothing could be seen scattered around the blast site.<\/p>\n TV footage showed several injured people lying on the ground and crying for help.<\/p>\n Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has condemned the attack, vowing to continue Pakistan\u2019s war on terrorism “despite these cowardly acts”. The premier\u00a0has also cancelled a visit to the\u00a0U.K. after the Lahore blast.\u00a0He is expected to travel to the\u00a0U.S. on Tuesday to participate in a\u00a0nuclear security conference.<\/p>\n Error, group does not exist! Check your syntax! (ID: 12)<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Blast tears through crowded park in Lahore, killing at least 69 people and injuring scores of others, according to local officials<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":58048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,118,14],"tags":[13982,636,33952,4706],"class_list":["post-58043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-hot","category-world","tag-lahore","tag-pakistan","tag-pakistan-lahore","tag-pakistani-taliban"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}