Pakistan detained more than 5,000 suspects after Easter bombing: minister

Lawyers join a protest against the suicide bomb attack by the Taliban which killed 73 people in Lahore. Arif Ali / AFP

ISLAMABAD // Pakistani authorities detained more than 5,000 suspects, then released most of them, in the two days that followed a suicide bombing at a park in the eastern city of Lahore, killing 73 people, a provincial minister said on Tuesday.

Investigators were keeping 216 suspects in custody pending further investigation, said Rana Sanaullah, a state minister for Punjab province from prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s ruling party.

“After further investigation we will know more about them,” he said. “If someone is found to be guilty they will be charged.”

Details of the sweeping raids – aimed at anyone suspected of extremism – came as the Pakistani Taliban faction claiming responsibility for Sunday’s attack issued a new threat on Tuesday, singling out the media.

“Everyone will get their turn in this war, especially the slave Pakistani media,” Ehsanullah Ehsan, spokesman for Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, tweeted. “We are just waiting for the appropriate time.”

“Let Nawaz Sharif know that this war has now come to the threshold of his home,” Ehsan added. “The winners of this war will, God willing, be the righteous mujahideen.”

Lahore is the capital of Punjab, Pakistan’s richest and most populous province and Mr Sharif’s political heartland.

The Easter bombing was Pakistan’s deadliest attack since a 2014 school massacre claimed by the Taliban killed 134 students. Sunday’s attack, which killed at least 29 children, showed that the militants can still cause carnage despite military raids on their northwestern strongholds.

Jamaat-ur-Ahrar said it had targeted Christians, a minority community in overwhelmingly Muslim Pakistan. Anguished families spent Easter Monday burying their dead.

On Tuesday the death toll climbed to 73 after a 16-year-old boy succumbed to his injuries.

“The boy had lost his father and sister in the blast while his mother is being treated for critical injuries,” said Dr Tariq Mohsin.

Mr Sanaullah, the Punjab minister, said at least 160 raids had been carried out by a mixture of police, counter-terrorism and intelligence agents and confirmed that army and paramilitary forces would be used in future operations.

Security for hundreds of churches was also increased.

Officials said on Monday that the military was preparing to launch a new paramilitary counterterrorism crackdown in Punjab.

The move, which has not yet been formally announced, represents the civilian government once again granting special powers to the military to fight militants.

Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, which has previously declared loyalty to ISIL, has carried out five major attacks in Pakistan since December.

In a televised address to the nation on Monday night, Mr Sharif vowed to continue pursuing militants.

“I am here to renew a pledge that we are keeping count of every drop of blood of our martyrs. This account is being settled, and we will not rest till it is paid,” Mr Sharif said.

The government also announced that Mr Sharif would be cancelling a planned trip to the United States to attend the Nuclear Security Summit, beginning there on Thursday.

Pakistan’s security agencies have long been accused of nurturing some militants to use for help in pursuing objectives in Afghanistan and against old rival India.

But in recent years Islamabad has cracked down on movements that target its own citizens and institutions, including the Taliban who are fighting to topple the government and install a strict interpretation of sharia.

Kashir Nawab, a 32-year-old Christian from the Youhanabad district of Lahore, said a “pall of gloom” hung over the area on Tuesday as mourners visited the homes of those lost in the blast.

“Everybody is frightened and the Christians particularly feel unprotected,” he said.

Christians make up an estimated 1.6 per cent of Pakistan’s 200 million people and have long faced discrimination.

* Reuters, with additional reporting by Agence France-Presse