Suicide bombers target Pakistan shrine

LAHORE, Pakistan — Two suicide bombers struck a popular Muslim shrine in Pakistan's second-largest city late Thursday, killing 35 people and wounding 175 others in the second major attack in Lahore in a month.

The bombers struck as thousands of people visited the Data Darbar shrine, where a famous Sufi saint is buried. Muslims in Pakistan visit shrines and mosques in large numbers on Thursday and Friday nights.

Lahore has experienced a growing number of attacks as Taliban fighters along the northwest border with Afghanistan have teamed up with militant groups in the country's heartland.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. But Islamist extremists consider Sufis to be heretics and have often targeted them, as well as Shiites and other minority groups.

The first bomber detonated his explosives in a large underground room where visitors sleep and wash before praying, said Khusro Pervez, the top government official in Lahore.

The attack occurred as volunteers handed out food to people visiting the shrine, said Chaudary Mohammed Shafique, a senior police official.

Minutes later, a second bomber detonated his explosives upstairs in a large courtyard in front of the shrine as people tried to flee the first attack, Pervez said.

"It was a horrible scene," said Mohammed Nasir a volunteer security guard at the shrine who was getting ready to pray when the first blast occurred. "There were dead bodies all around with blood and people were crying."

At least 25 of those wounded in the attacks were in critical condition, Pervez said.

Demonstrators gathered outside the shrine after the attack, protesting the security lapse that allowed the bombings to occur. Police fired into the air and threw rocks to disperse the protesters.

Lahore, the capital of Pakistan's most prosperous province, Punjab, a key political, military and cultural center, has been the scene of some of the most violent attacks in the country in the past year.

On May 28, gunmen and a suicide squad lobbed grenades and sprayed bullets in attacks on two mosques packed with worshippers from the minority Ahmadi sect. At least 93 people were killed and dozens wounded.

In March 2009, militants armed with rocket launchers, hand grenades and assault rifles attacked Sri Lanka's cricket team and security detail, killing six police and a driver and wounding seven players and a coach.

That assault led to the suspension of international cricket matches in Pakistan.

In October 2009, teams of gunmen attacked three security facilities in Lahore, leaving 28 dead. In December 2009, two bombs killed 48 at a market in the city.