Pakistan, India suspend popular border ceremony

India's home ministry announced on Monday that it had agreed to a request from Pakistan to suspend the daily flag-lowering ceremony at the Wagah frontier post to allow a period of mourning for the victims of Sunday's attack.

"It is the first time we have suspended the ceremony after the (1971) war. The ceremony was not suspended even during Kargil," K.S. Dhatwalia said, referring to a 1999 conflict between the two countries in the town of Kargil.

A police chief on the Pakistani side said the ceremony would be held for the next three days.

"The crossing will remain closed till we complete a combing operation in the vicinity," Punjab provincial police chief Mushtaq Sukhera told the AFP news agency.

At least 55 people were killed and more than 120 others injured when an explosion ripped through a parking lot near the border gates on the Pakistani side of frontier, just as patrons were leaving the elaborate military ceremony, which attracts thousands of visitors each day.

Police on Monday were reported to be stopping tourists some two kilometers (1.24 miles) from the border crossing, located not far from the Pakistani city of Lahore.

Three separate militant groups, including the Pakistani Taliban, have claimed responsibility for the attack.

The attack, which officials said was the work of a suicide bomber, is the deadliest single incident since the Pakistani military began an offensive against Islamists in the country's tribal region near its border with Afghanistan. The military claims to have killed more than 1,100 militants since it launched the campaign back in June.

pfd/ksb (dpa, AFP, Reuters)