Pakistani Attack: Taliban says it targeted Christians

The Pakistani Taliban group has claimed responsibility for the Easter Sunday attack in Lahore that has so far killed 72 people with more than 300 injured.

The group specifically pointed out they were targeting the Christian community.

According to Lahore’s Deputy Police Inspector Haider Ashraf, majority of those killed and injured in the attack were Muslims.

“The score stands at 72 this Monday morning,” he said.

The blast occurred in the Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park near the city center where minority Christians celebrated Easter Sunday.

29 children, 7 women and 36 men are recorded to have been killed in the blast according to an emergency official.

A witness, whose house is located meters from across the park described the explosion was huge. “Everything was shaking, there were screams and dust everywhere,” the witness said.

This is not the first attack in Pakistan with infant casualties. In December 2014, Taliban militants attacked a school in Peshawar that left at least 154 dead.

A double suicide bombing by the same group against churches in Lahore left 17 people dead in March 2015.

Ban Ki-moon condemns appalling terror attack in #Pakistan: https://t.co/arqPmaYwZH UNIC_Pakistan #LahoreBlast

— UN Spokesperson (UN_Spokesperson) March 28, 2016

UN secretary General Ban Ki-moon has described the attack as a ‘terrible act of terrorism,’ and Punjab’s chief minister Shahbaz Sharif has also announced three days of mourning, pledging to bring the perpetrators to justice.