ISLAMABAD (AP) — A breakaway Pakistani faction of the militant Taliban group is claiming responsibility for an Easter Sunday bombing that killed 65 people in a park in the eastern city of Lahore that was crowded with Christians, including many children.
A spokesman for the group says a suicide bomber with the faction deliberately targeted the Christian community.
The explosion took place near the children’s rides.
Local officials say the attack killed 65 people and wounded over 300.
Pakistani relatives and emergency workers carry an injured woman to the hospital in Lahore on March 27, 2016, after at least 56 people were killed and more than 200 injured when an apparent suicide bomb ripped through the parking lot of a crowded park in the Pakistani city of Lahore where Christians were celebrating Easter. (ARIF ALI/AFP/Getty Images)
The chief minister in the province of Punjab announced three days of mourning and pledged to bring the perpetrators to justice.
The park was manned by police and private security guards, but police there was no specific threat alert for the park.
Schools and businesses in the city will remain closed on Monday.
