At Least 20 Dead in Twin Lahore Blasts

At least 20 people were killed and 100 injured this morning in two huge bomb blasts in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, the latest escalation of a militant campaign against government targets.

The largest attack occurred at the headquarters of the Federal Investigations Agency (FIA) as employees arrived for work. Initial reports were confused but several witnesses described a suicide bomber who dashed into the building and detonated his payload.

At least 18 people were killed and the front of the building was shredded in the blast, which shattered windows, wrenched doors from homes and flung air conditioners into the street.

"It was like hell let loose on us," resident Fazal Muqeem told the Associated Press.

Local television showed rescuers scrambling to pull survivors from the wreckage of the FIA headquarters amid fears the multi-story building could collapse. The death toll is expected to rise.

A few hours later the Australian cricket team canceled a forthcoming tour of Pakistan on security grounds.

A smaller blast occurred at the offices of an advertising agency in a residential area when a pair of suicide bombers rammed their way through the front gate. A gardener was seriously injured and two of his children were killed.

The owner of the agency, Salman Batalwi, said he could not understand why he had been targeted but noted that Bilawal House, an office of the Pakistan People's party of assassinated opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, was situated nearby. "Maybe they had the wrong address," he said.

President Pervez Musharraf condemned the "savage" bombings and said they "cannot deter" the government's resolve to fight the scourge of terrorism "with full force", according to the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan.

The blasts are the latest in a string of attacks against military and police targets that has become increasingly focused on Lahore, the previously peaceful capital of Punjab province. Last week a twin-suicide blast killed four people in the car park of the Navy War College, down the road from the FIA headquarters, and in January a suicide bomber killed 20 policemen outside the city's high court.

More than 500 people have died in Pakistan over the past three months in a combination of suicide blasts and fighting between pro-Taliban militants and the army in the tribal areas.

Today's attack undermines the stark security challenge facing Bhutto's widower, Asif Zadari, and opposition leader Nawaz Sharif as they come together to form a coalition government sometime in the coming week.

Anger at the violence is compounded by the failure to answer two fundamental questions: who is behind the blasts and what do the perpetrators want?

No group claimed responsibility for today's blasts, but security analysts point to a shadowy nexus linking tribal fighters from the lawless areas along the Afghan border, al-Qaida fugitives sheltering in the same areas, and jihadist militants based in Punjab.

Ahsan Iqbal, a spokesman for Sharif's party, said Musharraf's failed policies were partly to blame.

"Musharraf has used terrorism as a political card. He has become very symbolic and controversial for these reactionary forces. If he goes at least it will be a breakthrough to give the people and the country a chance for a new opening".

The siege of the Red Mosque in Islamabad last July, when over 100 people died in a week-long confrontation between security forces and radical students, was a turning point, Mr Iqbal said. "Before the Red Mosque 99% of the people were against the mullahs. Afterwards 99% were against the government," he said.