Suicide Car bomb blast in Lahore

A suicide car bomb attack on a police intelligence unit in Lahore killed at least 12 persons and wounded about 65 during Monday morning rush hour.

Lahore’s top administrator Sajjad Bhutta said about 580-600 kg of explosives were used in the attack.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban took credit for Monday’s suicide attack. It maintained that the attack was to avenge US drone attacks and Pakistani military operations in the tribal areas and said that it would carry on such attacks as long as operations continued.

However, this did not deter Pakistan from accusing India. Punjab law minister Rana Sanaullah leveled the charge first, within hours of the blast. He accused RAW of being involved. He then went on to add that Israel and other countries could also be involved.

Mr Sanaullah claimed that militants, against whom Pakistani security forces were conducting operations in the Waziristan tribal region, were behind the terrorist attacks and they were being backed by “foreign hands.”

Interior minister Rehman Malik then went on to fill in the blanks and said that India was the 'foreign hand’ behind several attacks in Pakistan. I have identified it several times. All the weapons are coming from Afghanistan.

The signatures of India are very much there in weapons seized in (Pakistan’s) tribal areas,” Mr Malik was quoted as saying. He added that Pakistan would present “evidence” of India’s alleged involvement in the attacks whenever talks are held between the two sides.

This is a claim that Mr Rehman has made in the past too. But till now Islamabad predictably has failed to furnish any evidence on the matter. "We have compiled the reports and evidence and whenever India sits for talks, we will raise this issue. We have also raised it several times and will continue raising it," he added.

India and Pakistan in last couple of days have been engaged in a war of words with little indication of where the latest engagement is headed.