By Xinhua
Islamabad : A suicide bomb blasted in eastern Pakistan on Thursday, killing 20 people, mostly police officers, local TV channel DAWN NEWS reported.
The blast occurred near Lahore High Court in Punjab province also wounded 57 others, mostly police officers, in the city’s main commercial district, said the report, quoting a local police officer.
“It was a suicide attack and policemen were the target,” city police chief Malik Mohammad Iqbal told Dawn Television.
Spokesman of the Interior Ministry Javed Cheema also said that the police were the target of the attack. But he said five policemen were among the 20 killed.
Security across the country is put on red alert, said the spokesman.
Police said that the bomber arrived on a motorbike. He set off the device when police tried to stop him outside the court.
The Lahore High Court bar meeting was under way at the time of the blast. Police guards were deployed in front of the court.
Witnesses said they saw many policemen killed and the ambulances were shifting the injured to local hospitals while the police cordoned off the area.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Thursday’s blast came two weeks after Pakistan People’s Party leader Benazir Bhutto was killed in a suicide attack after addressing an election rally in Rawalpindi, also in Punjab province.