At least 8 dead in explosion in eastern Pakistan

At least eight people were killed and 15 injured on Thursday in an explosion in a building in Lahore, according to local officials.


The explosion occurred mid-morning at a restaurant in a building located in a market, the spokesperson of the area's police station, Irfan ul Haq, told EFE from the site of the blast.

Najab Haider, police spokesperson of Punjab told EFE that the explosion may have been caused by a bomb of about 10 kilograms (22 pounds) that was kept in an under-construction building.

Pakistan's Information Department issued a brief statement saying that an explosion has left a number of people dead while confirming that the affected building was under construction.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif expressed his condolences to the victims in a statement but did not offer any details on the origin of the explosion or call it a terror attack.

The blast comes a day after the army announced it will intensify its anti-terrorist operation in the country in response to a series of attacks that Pakistan has witnessed recently.

This operation, called Radd-ul-Fasaad (elimination of discord), comes after at least seven assaults in recent days, including a suicide attack on a sufi shrine that left 88 dead in southern Pakistan on Feb. 16 and another in Lahore on Feb. 13, which killed 14.

According to the authorities around 150 alleged terrorists have been killed last week.
 [EFE/EPA]
23/2/17