Pakistani Taliban claims responsibility for Lahore blast amid terror crackdown

A Pakistani Taliban faction claimed responsibility for a blast that killed at least nine people in the eastern city of Lahore on Wednesday, the militants said in a statement. "This attack was carried out at a time when there were no civilians near the police," said Abdul Aziz Yousafzai, spokesman for the Hizbul Ahrar militant group, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban.

At least nine persons, including five police personnel, were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a major Sufi shrine in Pakistan's Lahore on Wednesday as the country marks the fasting month of Ramzan, officials said. The blast took place around 8:45 am (local time) outside Gate number 2 of the Data Darbarshrine, the largest Sufi shrine in South Asia, where the police personnel were deployed for security, police said.