A SUICIDE bomber has ploughed a motorcycle into a group of police escorting a protest rally in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, killing at least 11 people and wounding nearly 60 more in an attack claimed by a breakaway Taliban faction.
The blast ripped through the crowd of hundreds of pharmacists, who were protesting amendments to a law governing drug sales.
Two senior police officers, including a former provincial counter-terrorism chief, were among those killed, police said.
Sameer Ahmad, the Lahore deputy commissioner, said at least 11 people were killed and 58 wounded.
A group called Jamaat-ul-Ahrar – a splinter faction from the Pakistani Taliban – claimed the attack in a text message, saying it was revenge for Pakistani attacks against Islamic militants in tribal regions along the Afghan border.
In recent years, Pakistan has launched several offensives against the Taliban and other Islamic militants in the tribal regions.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed to continue fighting terrorism "until we liberate our people of this cancer and avenge those who have laid down their lives for us".
Elsewhere in Pakistan, a roadside bomb killed two members of a bomb disposal squad on the outskirts of the south-western city of Quetta, said police officer Abdur Razzaq Cheema.
Another eight people were wounded, he said.
A Taliban-linked group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, said it planted the bomb.
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