LAHORE, Pakistan, Jan 25, (AFP): Two suicide bombers struck the Pakistani cities of Lahore and Karachi within two hours on Tuesday, killing at least 12 people and wounding more than 70, officials said.
A teenager blew himself up in the eastern city of Lahore near a Shiite Muslim procession, killing at least nine people and wounding more than 70, in an attack claimed by Taleban militants who said they had targeted police.
About 90 minutes later a motorcycle bomber detonated in the southern city of Karachi, killing three people, including two policemen, police and hospital officials said.
The first bombing took place at a busy intersection in downtown Lahore when a young teenager tried to join a Shiite procession before detonating close to a police checkpoint, said city police chief Aslam Tareen.
“The bomber had strapped bombs to his body as well as carrying explosives in a bag,” he said.
“(He) tried to sneak into the procession and exploded himself when police stopped him for a body search at an outer checkpoint,” he said.

Doctor Asad Ashraf at Lahore city’s main Mayo Hospital said the hospital had received ten bodies, including that of the suicide bomber, and 70 wounded, while another four injured people were at a hospital nearby.
Another hospital official said the dead included at least three police officials and one woman, and said 20 people were critically wounded, including women and children.
Television footage showed policemen and ambulance workers carrying the wounded away with their hands and on stretchers, while other officers tried to calm the shocked and confused crowd.
The suicide attack took place near a religious procession by the Shiite Muslim community to mark the 40th day of mourning of the death of the Prophet Mohammad’s grand son Imam Hussain (PBUH).
An hour and a half later a second suicide attack in troubled Karachi city, a teeming coastal metropolis where sectarian and political violence is rife, killed three people, including two policemen, and injured three others.

“It was a suicide bombing. The bomber was riding a motorbike and carrying a bag in his hand, which had explosives in it. He struck one of our police mobile vans. The police were the target,” said senior police official Shaukat Shah.
Police surgeon Hamid Perhiar at Karachi’s main Jinnah Hospital said three people, including two officers were killed, while there was another policeman among the three injured.
The Pakistani Taleban claimed responsibility for the Lahore attack which they said was aimed at security officials in revenge for military operations and US drone attacks targeting militants in their northwest stronghold.
Meanwhile, Pakistani fighter jets pounded militant hideouts in a rugged tribal region near the Afghan border on Tuesday, killing 18 Islamist fighters, an official said.
“Security forces targeted militant hideouts in different areas of Mohmand tribal region, killing 18 militants,” senior local administration official Maqsood Amin told AFP. He added that the security forces also destroyed at least 10 militant hideouts.

“Most of the militants killed during the operation belonged to Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan (TTP), Amin said.
The United States has branded the rugged tribal area, which lies outside Pakistani government control, a global headquarters of Al-Qaeda and the most dangerous place on Earth.
Under US pressure to crack down on Islamist havens along the Afghan border, Pakistan has in the past two years stepped up military operations against largely homegrown militants in the tribal regions.
Pakistan launched its most ambitious military offensive yet against Taleban militants in South Waziristan in 2009, expanding the campaign to many of the other seven semi-autonomous tribal districts along the border.
Washington says wiping out the militant threat in Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal belt is vital to winning the war against the Taleban in Afghanistan and defeating al-Qaeda.