NEW DELHI — In the deadliest attack in a string of mysterious terrorist assaults in Pakistan, a bomb hidden in the gas tank of a crowded bus exploded Sunday, killing more than 50 passengers and injuring two dozen others, Pakistani officials and media said.
The bus was carrying residents of Punjab province home for Eid al-Adha, the Islamic festival of sacrifice and the most important feast in the Muslim calendar.
Many of the passengers, including women and children, were trapped inside the bus when it burst into flames and were burned to death, some beyond recognition.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, but Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto pointed the finger at India, Pakistan's unfriendly neighbor.
Authorities said the explosive charge detonated as the crowded bus stopped to pick up passengers at a village marketplace in Bhaj Pheru, about 30 miles southwest of Lahore, Punjab's capital.
The state-run Associated Press of Pakistan news agency said the bomb was planted in the bus' gas tank and that it blew up with deafening force.
"There were two explosions--the first one and then a second one almost immediately, I guess when the petrol tank exploded," Ata Dada, a paramedic, told reporters at the scene.
Dada, whose first aid station was only about 200 yards away, said he could see the victims inside the bus, some screaming for help, but that he was helpless to stop the fire. He didn't even have a fire extinguisher.
"We couldn't do anything but watch," he said. "People inside were screaming. It was so horrible."
The bodies couldn't be removed from the gutted vehicle for four hours, he said. "Everything was so hot. We couldn't touch anything."
Twenty-four passengers survived the bombing and fire but sustained serious injuries, news reports said. At least 13 were rushed to a Lahore hospital for emergency treatment.
Whoever was behind the bombing, it was clearly meant to claim the maximum number of lives possible. Pakistanis by the millions travel for Eid al-Adha, the commemoration of biblical patriarch Abraham's sacrifice of a ram as a divine dispensation releasing him from the sacrifice of his son. Any bus targeted on that day was bound to be full.
In a telephone interview with the BBC, Bhutto alleged that the attack could be part of a campaign by India to destabilize Pakistan's largest, most populous and most politically important province.
