The May 2010 Lahore attacks, also referred to as the Lahore massacre, occurred on 28 May 2010, in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan, during Friday prayers. 94 people were killed and more than 120 others were injured in nearly simultaneous attacks against two mosques of the minority Ahmadiyya muslim community. After the initial attack, a hostage situation lasted for hours. Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, as well as their Punjab wing, claimed responsibility for the attacks and were also blamed by the Pakistani Police.
Background
The Ahmadiyya movement was started in 1889 and follows the teachings of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad whom they believe was sent by God as the Promised Messiah and Mahdi prophesied in Islam "to end religious wars, condemn bloodshed and re-institute morality, justice and peace." It is estimated there are between 3-4 million Ahmadis in Pakistan.
The Ahmadiyya Muslims have previously been targeted by Sunni groups, while they have also suffered discrimination in Pakistan in the past, most significantly during the Lahore riots of 1953. Pakistan does not recognize the Ahmadis as Muslim, because they claim that the latter does not recognize the finality of the prophethood of Muhammad, despite it not being an article of the Five Pillars of Islam. They were declared non-Muslim in Pakistan in 1973 by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and were legally banned from identifying themselves as such in 1984 during General Zia-ul-Haq's Islamization as per Ordinance XX, despite Ahmadis calling themselves Muslim and following the rituals of Islam. The ban occurred when jihadist ideology became embedded in Pakistan's state and education system. The media in Pakistan are legally barred from referring to an Ahmadi place of worship as a mosque.
Human rights groups in Pakistan said that they had warned of threats to the Ahmadi community center in Model Town for more than a year, saying the government took inadequate steps to provide security. The UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Asma Jahangir; an independent expert on minority issues, Gay McDougall; and the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Philip Alston, claimed that because Ahmadis have been declared non-Muslims and have been subject to a number of restrictions, in many instances institutionalized discrimination, opinion makers are emboldened to seek to fuel hatred, and perpetrators of attacks against religious minorities find cannon fodder. According to Minority Rights Group International, Pakistan had the world's highest increase of threats against minorities last year and was ranked the sixth most dangerous country for minorities overall.
Lahore has also been the site of various interval attacks by militants, including on visiting Sri Lankan cricketers and the police academy, amongst others.
Follow-up
An Ahmadi man was stabbed to death, while his son was there, watching, when a trespasser attacked them. It was said that the assailant threatened not to leave any Ahmadi alive after hearing a mullah's sermon on television.
Gunmen also attacked a hospital, on the same day, in which some of the injured from the mosque attack were being treated. It is unclear whether the gunmen were trying to free one of their own who was also being treated in the hospital or trying to kill him. The gunmen indiscriminately started to fire in the hospital, killing twelve people.
Attack
The perpetrators lobbed grenades and started firing as they attacked mosques of the minority Ahmadi Muslim community in two different residential neighborhoods. The near simultaneous attacks were at Darul Zikr, Garhi Shahu and Bait-al Noor. Lack of security meant they easily infiltrated both the Mosques in Lahore Model Town and in Garhi Shahu, 15 km apart.
The attackers at Garhi Shahu, including two would-be suicide bombers, entered the mosque without any resistance, before storming into the prayer halls firing guns, throwing grenades. The assault at Model Town involved two attackers opening fire on worshippers before exploding hand grenades. The attackers did not take any hostages and killed indiscriminately.
The Elite Police arrived once the attackers had entered the mosques but did not launch an operation, while the two attackers blew themselves up after the attack in Garhi Shahu which lasted four hours. Two militants were involved in each of the attacks.