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Pakistani police and rescuers responded to the amusement park which was targeted by an offshoot of the Pakistani Taliban on Easter Sunday.
CNN Screenshot
At least 69 people were killed and 341 were injured after a suicide blast tore through a Lahore, Pakistan neighborhood amusement park where Christians and Muslims were out enjoying the weather on Easter Sunday.
According to CNN, an offshoot of the Pakistani Taliban, Jamat-ul-Ahrar, has claimed responsibility for the attack and added that they were intentionally targeting Christians. Jamat-ul-Ahrar vowed that attacks would continue against the Pakistani Christian community, which, makes up less than 2% of the population, CNN reports.
“It was so crowded that there was even no way of entering it,” a witness told CNN.
“There was suddenly a big blast. Everyone panicked, running to all directions. Many of them were blocked at the gate of the park. Dead bodies can be found everywhere.”
According to CNN, the majority of those killed and injured were women and children who were trapped inside the overcrowded park when the blast occured.
On Monday, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, a Lahore native, met with law enforcement and intelligence officials.
“Our goal is not only to eliminate terror infrastructure but also the extremist mindset, which is a threat to our way of life,” he said, CNN reports.
“I want more proactive coordination between law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Provinces should speed up intelligence-based operations against terrorists. We must take this war to the doors of terrorist outfits before they are able to hit our innocent countrymen.”
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