Pak forms JIT to probe suicide attack near Nawaz Sharif's home

Pakistan's Punjab government today formed a joint investigation team to probe a suspected Taliban suicide attack near the home of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif here that killed at least 10 people.

Five police personnel were among the 10 killed on Wednesday evening when a teenage Pakistani Taliban suicide bomber attacked a police check-post in the Raiwind area on the outskirts of Lahore, the provincial capital.

At least 20 others were wounded in the attack which took place near a mosque hosting a religious congregation of some 60,000 people.

The JIT includes members of the police and intelligence agencies.

The attack happened close to a police check post, a few kilometres from the palatial residence of the Sharif family in Jati Umra.

Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif chaired a meeting on security-related issues today, where authorities submitted the initial investigation report of the blast.

Shehbaz, also the interim president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is the younger brother of Nawaz Sharif.

Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said that the initial probe has revealed that police personnel were the target of the terrorist.

This was the first explosion targeting the provincial capital since the start of 2018, the report said.

Lahore saw a series of terrorist attacks last year in which more than 60 people were killed.