Lahore: Pakistani authorities suspect the suicide bomb attack in Lahore was a pressure tactic to secure the release of Hafiz Saeed, the leader of a proscribed militant group who has been detained for his suspected involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks.
The blast took place near the Lahore High court where Hafiz Saeed, chief of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), was scheduled to appear for a hearing on Wednesday. Saeed was detained last December after the United Nations declared JuD, a frontal organisation of the LeT, as a terrorist group.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik suggested the attack could also be retaliation for the government's military offensive to rout Taliban militants from the northwestern Swat Valley.
"We are in a state of insurgency. There is a war inside the country and there were two options before the government either to cave in and hand over control to these elements or to confront and crush them," he said.
"It appears to be a fallout of the ongoing military operations in Swat, Dir and other areas of North West Frontier Province," Malik said and warned that there would be no let up in the crackdown on these "anti-national elements".
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