Five Dead in Bomb Attack in Pakistan's Lahore

A suicide bomber killed five people near police headquarters in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore Tuesday, an attack claimed by a Taliban faction as revenge for the execution of their comrades.

The blast hit just meters from an entrance to the police headquarters in the heart of the city, sending a column of black smoke rising above buildings.

Lahore, Pakistan's second largest city and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's powerbase, has largely escaped the worst of the Islamist violence that has engulfed the country in the last decade.

Shuja Khanzada, home minister for Punjab province of which Lahore is the capital, said a policeman and four civilians were killed  and 17 people were wounded.

City police chief Amin Wains told reporters the police HQ complex, known as police lines, was the intended target.

"The bomber wanted to enter inside the police lines but exploded prematurely," he said.

"Police lines was the target but the bomber did not succeed to enter inside."

Television footage showed several vehicles on fire after the explosion, which left the street littered with broken glass and debris from nearby buildings.

- Revenge attacks - 

The hardline Jamat-ul-Ahrar faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) said they were behind Tuesday's attack.

Spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said the group dedicated the bombing "to all the martyrs who were dragged out of prison and killed or hanged".

"We want to make it clear to the rulers that we will take revenge for the blood of innocent Muslims -- our operations will continue till Islamic system is imposed," Ehsan said in an emailed statement.

Tuesday's bombing comes just days after 22 people were killed in a gun and suicide attack on a Shiite mosque in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

The main TTP group claimed responsibility for Friday's attack in Peshawar, saying it was revenge for a militant known as Doctor Usman who was hanged in December.

Pakistan has stepped up its fight against militants since Taliban gunmen massacred more than 150 people, most of them children, at a school in Peshawar in December.

Following the massacre, Prime Minister Sharif ended a six-year moratorium on the death penalty. Doctor Usman, also known as Aqil, was one of the first to go to the gallows.

He was convicted for an attack on the army headquarters in Rawalpindi in 2009 and was arrested after being injured.

In claiming Friday's attack, the TTP vowed to continue their campaign of violence.

Since June last year the army has been waging a major campaign against strongholds of the TTP and other militants in the North Waziristan tribal area close to Peshawar.

The military says the operation has killed more than 2,000 militants, though the precise number and identity of those killed cannot be verified independently.

Lahore has remained relatively peaceful during the TTP's seven-year campaign of bomb and gun attacks, which has left thousands of civilians dead.

But last October a suicide bomber killed 55 people at Wagah, Pakistan's main land border with India close to Lahore.