2 blasts target military vehicles at Pakistan bazaar, killing at least 43

Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan, and Lahore, Pakistan -- Two suicide bomb blasts spaced just 15 seconds apart rocked the eastern city of Lahore on Friday, killing at least 43 people and sparking fears of a new wave of militant violence in Pakistan’s major cities after a period of relative calm.

The attacks targeted two military vehicles near a crowded market known as the R. A. bazaar. The bombers detonated vests filled with explosives after walking up to the vehicles, said Lahore police official Chaudhry Shafiq. More than 95 people were injured in the explosions.

The twin blasts came just four days after a suicide car bomb attack at a Lahore building that housed terrorism investigators killed at least 13 people and wounded 80 others.

Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city and its cultural hub, was the scene of some of the deadliest bombings in the country last year, including blasts in December that ripped through a crowded bazaar and killed 48 people, and a commando-style raid in May on the national spy agency’s provincial headquarters that killed at least 27.

Those attacks came amid several waves of violence carried out by Islamic extremists in retaliation for military offensives that routed Taliban militants from the volatile Swat Valley region and sections of tribal areas along the Afghan border. The violence killed more than 600 people.

However, the success of the offensives, coupled with U.S. drone attacks that have killed scores of militants and two Pakistani Taliban leaders, had recently given Pakistanis confidence that they were gaining the upper hand against militants whose forces last spring had moved to within 60 miles of the capital, Islamabad. A new wave of suicide bombings in Pakistan’s major cities could undermine that recent momentum.

“The nation and its security forces need to keep morale high,” said Rana Sanaullah, law minister for Punjab province, where Lahore is located. “We can only win this fight with unity.”

The attacks Friday occurred at the Lahore Cantonment, a heavily guarded military district that includes offices and apartments for retired and active army personnel as well as rows of shops and market stalls.

The military vehicles targeted in the attacks belonged to the Garrison Security Force, a unit responsible for securing the district. The R. A. bazaar is the district’s commercial area. Eleven of the dead were Pakistani military personnel, said Punjab Police Inspector General Tariq Saleem Dogar.

Muhammad Shahid, 20, said he was standing only a few yards away when the blasts shook the neighborhood.

“I heard firing after the first blast, and then suddenly there was another huge blast,” Shahid said. “I saw 20 to 25 bodies lying on the ground. There was blood everywhere. People were crying and running away in panic.”

Shopkeeper Muhammad Hafeez heard the blasts from inside his shop about 200 yards from the site. “Both blasts were huge,” he said. “I also heard gunshots. We stayed inside our shops out of fear, then later shut everything down.”

alex.rodriguez

@latimes.com

Sahi is a special correspondent.