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Pakistani authorities hunted on Monday for breakaway Taliban militants who once declared loyalty to Islamic State (ISIS) after the group claimed responsibility for an Easter suicide bomb targeting Christians, that killed at least 70 people.
The attack on Sunday evening in a busy park in the eastern city of Lahore, the powerbase of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, killed mostly women and children enjoying an Easter weekend outing.
Pakistan is a majority-Muslim state but has a Christian population of more than two million.
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar said it had targeted Christians celebrating Easter, though police have said they are still investigating the claim.
There were scenes of carnage, as parents searched for children amid the debris.
Pakistan’s President condemned the attack, and the regional government has announced three days of mourning.
At least 300 people were injured, with officials saying they expected the death toll to rise.
Lahore is the capital of Pakistan’s richest province, Punjab, and is seen as the country’s political and cultural heartland.
The bombing of the amusement park on Easter Sunday was the bloodiest attack on Christians in Pakistan since the 2013 Peshawar church bombing that killed more than 80 people.
But many believe there may be a wider context to the latest attack – 27 March was the deadline set by an alliance of more than 30 religious groups for the provincial government of Punjab to withdraw a new women’s rights law they oppose.
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