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             Confusion After Deadly Attack on India Pakistan Border

   by VOA News

   Funeral arrangements are under way Monday, a day after a bomb attack in
   the Lahore region of Pakistan near the Wagah border crossing with
   India, killed at least 55 people and wounded more than 100.

   Sunday's attack took place where troops from Pakistan and India
   simultaneously lower the two nations' flags every evening in a ceremony
   attended by many tourists.

   Conflicting reports
   There are conflicting reports from the two sides about whether the
   daily ritual will be held Monday.

   The ceremony starts just before sunset and hundreds of people,
   including foreign tourists, normally gather on both sides of the border
   to witness it.

   At least two Pakistan Taliban factions have claimed responsibility for
   the attack.

   ''One Taliban splinter group said the attack was revenge for deaths
   caused by Pakistan's army during counter-insurgency operations in the
   tribal region of North Waziristan.

   The head of Pakistan's security forces on the eastern border,
   Major-General Khan Tahir Javed Khan, told reporters the suicide bomber
   apparently wanted to strike the flag ceremony but a security cordon
   stopped him about 500 meters away.  The man detonated the explosives at
   a place where families had stopped to buy food after witnessing the
   ceremony.

   Punjab Province Inspector General of Police Mushtaq Sukera said no one
   had expected an attack would target civilians.

   Attack near the border crossing
   Sunday's violence was the first near the flag ceremony, which has been
   taking place since 1959.

   ''Wagah is the only road border crossing between Pakistan and India.

   "I think the cause for concern is the fact that this incident took
   place so close to the Wagah border which really means that if a
   perpetrator can reach that far, the probability is that the same kind
   of an attack can take place either on the Indian side or along the
   border,'' said Uday Bhaskar, Indian security expert.

   "Pakistan will now see to it that they have to save their face,they
   have to make their areas stable," said Praful Bakshi, retired Indian
   security expert. "So they will try to infiltrate these elements at a
   certain cost into the Indian territory and to ease pressure within
   their territory.''
   "Today Pakistan is sitting on a ticking bomb. Pakistan has been blasted
   by the same bomb that it manufactured for others. If you give
   terrorists refuge in your own soil then this is the way you are going
   to destroy yourself," said Sambit Patra, spokesperson of India's ruling
   Bharatiya Janata Party. "Pakistan should learn lessons from whatever
   has happened on the Wagah border and should in fact flush terrorism out
   of its own soil.''

   "It is deplorable, it is condemnable, it is dastardly," said Abhisekh
   Manu Singhvi, leader of India's Opposition Congress Party. "Pakistan
   should have realized this long long ago that this needs to be put down
   with a firm hand, whether it is Pakistan, whether it is India.''
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References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/confusion-after-deadly-attack-on-india-pakistan-border/2505780.html