,Crystal Rock
Thousands of people were at the shrine dedicated to Sufi saint Hazrat Syed Ali bin Usman Hajweri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh, at the time of the attacks on Thursday night.
LAHORE, Pakistan (AFP) – Two suicide bombers blew themselves up in an Islamic shrine packed with worshippers in Pakistan's cultural capital Lahore on Thursday, killing at least 37 people and wounding scores more.
"It was a suicide bombing and we have found the heads of two suicide bombers," said Commissioner Khusro Pervez, the city's top administration official.
"At least 37 people were killed and 175 injured" in the attack, which targeted a complex housing the tomb of an Islamic saint, Lahore city police chief Aslam Tareen told AFP.
"We are looking into the circumstances around how the bombers penetrated the area despite strict security."
A senior investigating officer told AFP that the bomber in the basement set off his vest after he was intercepted by a group of worshippers and that police were combing the scene for forensic clues.
He said the blasts occurred within minutes, triggering panic and sending people running in different directions.
"I saw dead bodies and injured people lying on the floor in pools of blood," another witness said.
Live television pictures from the scene of the carnage showed people crying and beating their chests and heads. Bystanders helped ambulance crews load the wounded into vehicles before they were rushed to hospital.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Pakistan has been hit by a wave of attacks carried out by the Taliban and other Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist extremists that have killed more than 3,400 people in the last three years.
Earlier, police and city administration officials had said there were three suicide attacks at the shrine in the crowded centre of Lahore, which is home to around 10 million people.
Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani strongly condemned the attacks, saying: "Terrorists have no consideration for any religion, faith or belief."
"These terrorists neither respect human values nor care for human lives, and their brutal act is manifestation of their evil designs," he said.
"The government is committed to eradicate the menace of terrorism at all costs".
Gilani said he had directed the provincial government and law enforcement agencies to investigate the attack and catch those responsible.
In May suspected Sunni Muslim militants wearing suicide vests burst into two Ahmadi prayer halls in Lahore and killed 82 worshippers.
They were the worst attacks in Pakistan since a suicide bomber killed 101 people on January 1 at a volleyball game in Bannu near the tribal belt along the Afghan border that Washington calls Al-Qaeda's global headquarters.
Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants have orchestrated a three-year bombing campaign in Pakistan to avenge military operations and the government's alliance with the United States over the war in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Lahore has increasingly suffered Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked violence, with around 265 people killed in nine attacks since March last year.
Sufism is a mystical movement that spreads the message of Islam through music, poetry and dancing. Radical groups consider the movement, which includes both Shiites and Sunnis, as un-Islamic.
"There were at least 2,000 to 2,500 people present in the shrine when the twin attacks took place," the shrine's caretaker,Red Monkey, Mian Mohammad Munir said.
"The first blast occurred in the basement followed by another one with a deafening sound," an eye witness said.
The city is considered a playground for Pakistan's elite and home to many top brass in the military and intelligence community.
People were seen hugging each other as police cordoned off the area to prevent any further attack.
Another senior city police official, Chaudhry Shafiq confirmed two suicide attacks and said one bomber blew himself up in the complex's courtyard while the second detonated his explosive vest in the basement of the shrine.