LAHORE: Terror struck Pakistan’s heartland of Punjab on Friday as heavily-armed Taliban gunmen wearing suicide vests stormed two mosques packed with Friday worshippers from minority Ahmadi sect here, killing about 80 people and injuring scores in the fist major attack in Lahore since March.

Among the dead in attacks on the mosques located in the upscale Model Town and the heavily-congested area of Garhi Shahu were a retired lieutenant general and a journalist, officials said.
Firing indiscriminately from automatic rifles and lobbing grenades, the militants ran into the two mosques situated miles apart in coordinated attacks, seized hostages and set off running battles with the police.
The gunmen from Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan’s Punjab wing struck the jam-packed mosques, where over 1,500 worshippers had gathered for Friday prayers, at 1.45 p.m. (local time), Geo TV reported.
The TTP-Punjab faction comprises radical elements of the banned outfits like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi known for its anti-Shia views.
Reports received from different hospitals put the death toll at “around 80”, the district administration chief, Mr Sajjad Bhutta told reporters.
Other officials said nearly 100 people were injured, some of them seriously.
A retired lieutenant general of the Pakistan Army, a journalist of a Lahore-based TV channel and several policemen were among the dead.
Witnesses said eight to 10 terrorists were involved in the two attacks.
Three attackers at Garhi Shahu blew themselves up by detonating their suicide vests and their heads had been found, Mr Bhutta said.
At least two attackers were arrested at Model Town and one of them was injured, officials said. The injured attacker was operated upon at Jinnah Hospital.
The fate of the remaining attackers could not immediately be ascertained.
The injured were taken to five hospitals, where doctors performed emergency surgeries on several of them.
Hospital authorities also made appeals for blood donations.
Seven policemen, including the superintendent of police, Mr Haider Ashraf, were injured in the exchange of fire with the terrorists.
The police brought the situation at the Model Town mosque under control a little over an hour after the attack began.
The operation to clear the mosque at Garhi Shahu, where several terrorists took up positions on a minaret and the rooftop, ended after 4 p.m. (local time).
Witnesses said several of the terrorists who stormed the mosques were wearing suicide vests. They entered the mosques after killing policemen and security guards deployed at the gates.
TV channels aired dramatic footage of policemen advancing towards the mosques and exchanging fire with the attackers.
They also beamed footage of terrorists firing at security forces from a minaret and the rooftop of the mosque in Garhi Shahu.
The police and paramilitary forces surrounded the two mosques and took up positions on roads and rooftops around the mosques.
Both mosques are frequented by over 1,500 worshippers, including women, on Fridays. Hundreds of people were inside when the terrorists stormed the mosques.
Some men and women locked themselves up in rooms and prayer halls inside the mosques.
In a statement, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan chairperson, Ms Asma Jahangir said the body had warned the Punjab government about threats to the Ahmadi community centre in Model Town “for more than a year”.
An HRCP delegation held meetings with the Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Shahbaz Sharif to “apprise him of the situation and had demanded enhanced security measures to protect the vulnerable minority”.
Ms Jahangir said: “HRCP is of the view that the Punjab government apparently took some steps to bolster the security but they were not enough to face the well-coordinated and well-planned terrorist attack as witnessed on Friday.”
Friday’s incident was the first major strike in Lahore since the March suicide attacks which targeted the Pakistani military, killing up to 45 people.
Nearly 200 people have been killed in Lahore in eight attacks over the past year.