Thaindian News

Lahore, May 29 (ANI): Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer has said that the close links between the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Taliban was the prime reason behind Friday’s ghastly terror attack on the two Lahore mosques.

“Ahmedis had to face gun-and-grenade attacks inside the places of worship in Model Town and Garhi Shahu due to the close relations between the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Taliban,” The Daily Times quoted Taseer, as saying.

In his message on the social networking site-Twitter, Taseer said that banned extremist groups like the Sipah-e-Sahaba and the Taliban were jointly working in the province under the patronage of the provincial Law Minister Rana Sanaullah.

“Extremists are receiving VIP treatment in the Punjab jails,” Sanaullah wrote in his tweet.

Political bickering over the deadly militant attack on the two mosques, in which over 70 people were killed, is in full flow.

Earlier, Interior Minister Rehman Malik claimed that the Punjab government was already informed about militants’ plans to target minorities in the province.

Malik said that the provincial government was given specific intelligence inputs that militants may target religious places and other important installations in Lahore.

Over 70 people were killed, including nine security personnel, and more than 100 injured when several heavily armed gunmen struck two mosques belonging to the Ahmadiya community in Lahore on Friday (May 28). More than a thousand people were said to be inside the worship place at the time of the attack.

The hostage drama ended after an intense three hour-long gun battle between the security forces and the attackers. Media reports said that at least two suicide attackers were nabbed alive in the commando operation. (ANI)