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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — More than 50 people were killed Sunday when a suicide bomber struck during a solemn military ceremony at Pakistan’s eastern border with India, the deadliest attack on Pakistani soil this year.
The explosion at the Wagah crossing occurred just as the daily flag-lowering ceremony conducted by security forces on both sides was concluding. The blast tore through a parking lot, damaging several shops and a restaurant near the Pakistani city of Lahore.
Police said 55 people were killed, including numerous children, and more than 100 injured. The death toll was expected to rise, they added.
The attack, which appeared to be in retaliation for Pakistan’s ongoing military operation against Islamist extremists, overwhelmed hospitals in Lahore. And after several months of relative calm, the sight of bodies stacked in hospital parking lots again exposed Pakistan’s continued vulnerability to terrorist strikes.
“My father died. My younger brother is dead. My two maternal uncles and their wives were killed,” one victim told Pakistan’s GEO News in a televised interview. “My life is deserted. They went to see the parade.”
The flag-lowering ceremony is an immensely popular daily ritual between the two nations, involving a show of choreographed aggression and macho drills by soldiers on both sides of the border. The practice, carried out for more than five decades, is often attended by thousands. Wagah is the main border crossing between Pakistan and India, which have fought three major wars since 1947.
