Attack on India-Pakistan border kills dozens

At least 45 people were killed in eastern Pakistan on Sunday when a bomb exploded near the city of Lahore.

"According to initial information it was a suicide attack," Reuters news agency quoted quoted local police official, Mushtaq Sukhera, as saying, citing local television channels.

The bombing coincided with a military "flag-lowering" ceremony held every evening near the Wagah border, the only road border crossing into India.

"The suicide bomber failed to cross the security barrier and blew himself up outside when people were [leaving the ceremony]," Tahir Javed, the Punjab provincial commander of the Rangers paramilitary force that guards the post, told news agency AFP.

Thousands of people were in attendance on both sides of the borders on Sunday night, local police said, adding that no one on the Indian side had been hurt.

It was not immediately clear who carried out the deadly attack, because more than one group claimed responsibility for it.

A group known as Jamatul Ahrar - an offshoot of the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) - said it had dispatched the suicide bomber as part of its war against the Pakistani government.

Meanwhile, a separate TTP faction, reportedly loyal to its dead leader Hakimullah Mesud, also claimed responsibility and said Sunday's violence was a revenge attack for Mehsud's death in a 2013 US drone strike.

Local security and health officials said the death toll was expected to rise, with the number of wounded estimated to be more than 100 people.

kms/ksb (AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa)