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A BLAST AT one of Pakistan’s oldest and most popular Sufi shrines killed at least five people and wounded 24 in the eastern city of Lahore, police said, as the country marks the fasting month of Ramadan.
Police have said they are still investigating the nature of the blast, which occurred near the entrance gate for female visitors to the 11th-century Data Darbar shrine, one of the largest Sufi shrines in South Asia.
Husks of vehicles littered the pavement near the shrine as first responders rushed to the scene while armed security forces fanned out in the area.
The shrine has long been home to colourful Sufi festivals and a prime destination for the country’s myriad Muslim sects, making it a soft target for militant attacks.
It has been targeted previously, in a 2010 suicide attack which killed more than 40 people.
Since then the area has been increasingly hemmed in by heavy security, with visitors forced to pass through several layers of screening before they can enter the complex.
Sufi worshippers, who follow a mystical strain of Islam, have frequently been the target of bloody attacks in Pakistan by Islamist militants — including the Islamic State group — who consider Sufi beliefs and rituals at the graves of Muslim saints as heresy.
Senior police official Muhammad Ashfaq told a press conference that the security personnel at the shrine were targeted, but stressed that the cause of the blast remains under investigation.
Three police officials, a security guard and a civilian were killed, he added. Provincial health minister Yasmin Rashid confirmed the toll.
The blast may have been “a suicide attack” on a security vehicle, added police official Muhammad Kashif.
Pakistan’s push against extremism was stepped up after the country’s deadliest ever attack, an assault on a school in Peshawar in 2014 that left more than 150 people dead — mostly children.
Since then, security has dramatically improved but militants retain the ability to carry out dramatic attacks.
Major urban centres such as Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city and the provincial capital of its wealthiest province, Punjab, are not immune.
An attack in the city in March last year left nine people dead, while a major blast targeting Christians celebrating Easter in a park in 2016 killed more than 70 people.
Critics have long argued the military and government crackdown has not addressed the root causes of extremism in Pakistan, where hardline Muslim groups often target religious minorities.
The Data Darbar complex contains the shrine of Saint Syed Ali bin Osman Al-Hajvery, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh. Originally from Afghanistan, he was one of the most popular Sufi preachers on the subcontinent.
Tens of thousands of pilgrims visit the shrine each spring to mark his death anniversary, while it is also crowded weekly with worshippers listening to qawwali, a traditional form of Islamic devotional music.
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Council think it will have no negative impact?
They’ve clearly not lived near students who love to party. Especially not fun when you have to be up for work!
@Barry: There article said that antisocial behaviour was out of the scope of a planning application. The ‘no negative effect’ was in relation to the building, not the occupants.
@Barry: they actually come down hard on having parties within Trinity Hall, previously you were allowed one over-nihht guest who had to be signed in prior to 11PM and couldn’t re-enter after that, prior to 11 it was 3 guests who had to be gone by 11, at least those were the rules a few years ago.
Hence, parties on site aren’t the issue, coming and going to off-site parties could be an issue however
Have rent caps been considered in terms of this development. University rents are notoriously overpriced fuelling rent increases in the general rental market.
@Chris O’Connor: Trinity only made a net profit of circa 10 million on student accommodation in 2018, so little chance they will support your view
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/why-should-students-living-at-home-subsidise-those-living-in-campus-accommodation-1.4183312
No different to Temple Bar at weekends prior to Covid…. Smell of urine and vomit overpowering, empty cans and bottles, discarded food containers…. You know… The usual… But that was acceptable because the Pubs were creaming it. Now the ball is in a different court…..
Delighted. Temple road is still one of the quietest streets in Dublin. Plenty of room in the area. Students are largely very respectful in my experience.
Trinity should be ashamed of themselves being associated with this disaster of planning
No argument that the vast majority of students are respectful of local residents, but it only takes a few to cause mayhem. The college needs to take a no-tolerance approach to antisocial behaviour. One strike and your out and no return of deposit which should be donated to the local residents association. When mumsy and pop have to fork out a second time I’m sure the ground rules would be explained more forcefully.
Gasly shower of individual’s.
@Peter Bell: You’re not a Trinity graduate yourself?
@Peter Bell: It is usually the ghastly old fart’s who are gasly, especially those who use an apostrophe in a plural word.
The story had significantly less to do with UTIs than the headline may have led one to expect….
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