LAHORE — Over 55 people were killed and more than 120 wounded in a suicide bombing at the main Pakistan-India border crossing on Sunday, police said. The blast came at Wagah border gate near the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore after the “flag-lowering” ceremony, a display of military pageantry that attracts thousands of spectators every day and is popular with foreign tourists. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack. “We claim the Lahore suicide attack,” senior commander Gilamn Mehsud said. The attack was carried out in response to the Pakistani army's operation against Islamist militants in the tribal areas straddling the Afghan border, he said. “The death toll increased to 55,” the provincial police chief in the Pakistani city of Lahore told Reuters. Authorities had earlier put the death toll at 37. Pakistani police said they were investigating and a doctor said up to 70 people had been wounded. “According to initial information it was a suicide attack,” Inspector General of Punjab Police, Mushtaq Sukhera, told local television channels. “When ... security was a bit relaxed, the suicide attacker blew himself up near a restaurant.” “I was sitting in my office near the border when I heard the blast. I rushed to the scene and saw scattered bodies, injured men, women and children and smashed cars,” a Pakistani intelligence source told Reuters. Media reports earlier said the explosion was caused by a gas cylinder. Ashok Kumar, inspector general of India's Border Security Force guarding Wagah, said the blast had taken place 500 meters from the border at around 6:15 p.m. local time. “Our side is safe. We are alert, have increased our security, we are in constant touch with district officials and state police,” he said. Any explosion on the Indo-Pak border is far more serious than a similar event on the Pak-Afghan border, an Indian security official said, adding there had not been any major attack in Pakistani Punjab in recent months. — Reuters
