Lahore mourns as death roll rises to 80

[Robb]

Source: DAWN (Pakistan)

LAHORE — Militants attacked two places of worship packed with hundreds of worshippers from a religious minority in Lahore on Friday, holding hostages and battling police, officials and witnesses said. Some 80 people died, and dozens were wounded in the worst attack ever against the Ahmadi’s, reports AP.

The assaults in Lahore were carried out by at least seven men, including three suicide bombers, officials said. Two attackers were captured. At one point, a gunman fired bullets from atop a minaret.

It was one of the first times militants have deployed gun and suicide squads and taken hostages in a coordinated attack on a religious minority in Pakistan. Shia Muslims have borne the brunt of individual suicide bombings and targeted killings for years, though Christians and Ahmadis also have faced violence.

The long-standing threat to minorities in this Muslim-majority, US-allied nation has been exacerbated as the Sunni extremist Taliban and Al-Qaeda movements have spread.

Read more: http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/21-ahmadi-mosque-genocide-sk-01

[babylonsister]

1. That's really sad. The one place folks would hope to find peace,

and that happens.

[WileEcoyote]

2. They're going through their own personal "reformation".

The one Christianity had wasn't televised.