Eight of the dead people belonged to one family. The incident occurred a day before the arrival of 3,000 Sikh Yatrees from India to perform their religious ceremonies. The banned terrorist organisation Jundullah is reported to have claimed the responsibility for the suicide blast, the second in a week after Quetta by the same banned outfit.
According to details, hundreds of people had gathered to the Wagah border, 25 kilometers from Lahore to witness the flag-lowering ceremony just before the sunset that has become a tourist spot for people from all over the country.
Director General Rangers Punjab Major General Khan Tahir Khan said that the number of casualties would have been far greater, had the bomber crossed the three security check points. He blew himself up 600 yards from the venue of the flag-lowering ceremony. Police has taken possession of some parts of the suicide bomber.
Punjab police chief Mushtaq Ahmed Sukhera has confirmed that it was a suicide attack. Speaking to media, IG Punjab Mushtaq Sukhera said: "Our teams have confirmed that it was a suicide blast."
The IG said that the suicide bomber was stopped at the gate of the parade ground at the border and detonated the bomb when people gathered near the gate.
"Up to five kilograms of explosive material was used in the blast," Sukhera said.
"The bomb exploded outside a restaurant near a Pakistani paramilitary soldiers' check-point at Wagah border," he added.
"There were security threats and the Rangers were prepared, but when large numbers of people started to leave the ground, the bomber blew himself up, causing loss of lives," he added.
The police chief denied that the incident occurred because of a security lapse as the border is a Rangers area.
The explosion occurred in the parking area of the Wagah border between India and Pakistan, as the flag-hoisting ceremony ended. The Punjab health department has imposed an emergency in all teaching hospitals of Lahore following the blast.
A spokesman for the health department said that the injured were initially taken to Ghurki Hospital, which is nearest to the site of the blast. However, patients in critical condition are being shifted to Services Hospital for the treatment, he added.
Police and rescue officials reached the scene and further investigations are underway.
Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif has sought a report of the incident and directed the concerned authorities to provide the best possible medical treatment to the injured people.
Further, he has directed the interior ministry and law enforcement agencies to provide all necessary support to the Punjab government in investigating the Wagah incident.
The rescue teams reached the site of the attack and transported the bodies and injured to the nearest Ghurki Trust Hospital where they were being given initial treatment.
Therefore, many patients who did not need care on emergency basis were being transferred to other hospitals. The Rangers and law enforcement institutions have surrounded the area.
Hundreds of people visit the Wagah border to witness impressive parade at the border with neighbouring India.
Rescue 1122 staff immediately arrived at the scene and started taking the injured to the Ghurki Trust Hospital in ambulances where they are being treated. People were seen shifting their family members from Ghurki Trust Hospital because of inadequate facilities available there. Some of the injured were being transferred to government hospitals.
Security forces and Rangers have sealed the area.
Hundreds of Pakistanis daily visit Wagah border to watch flag ceremony at Pakistan-India border.
AFP adds: The attack is a rare strike in Punjab province and powerbase of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, which has been spared the worst of the bloody wave of violence that has assailed the country in recent years.
Huge crowds gather on both sides at Wagah each sunset to see the display of military pageantry that accompanies the formal closing of the border post. It appears the blast took place some distance from the border itself.
"We were here to watch the parade and the blast took place, the moment we left the venue," Muhammad Imran, aged 12, told AFP as he looked for his three brothers at the hospital.
Also among the fatalities were a group of five young friends from Karachi, who came to witness the parade, Usman said.
There are several security checkpoints on the road leading to the border post, which is equipped with a ceremonial gate and banked seating, and spectators are frisked before entering, though such searches are not always particularly rigorous.
CONFLICTING CLAIMS
There were several conflicting claims of responsibility for the attack, reflecting the fragmentation the umbrella Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) movement has undergone in recent weeks.
Abdullah Bahar, a spokesman for a TTP faction loyal to its dead chief Hakimullah Mehsud, said they carried it out to avenge Mehsud's killing in a US drone strike last year.
But the Jamat-ul-Ahrar faction, which broke away from the main TTP leadership in September, rubbished the claim and said they were behind the blast.
Group spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said in an email statement the attack was revenge for those killed in the ongoing military operation in North Waziristan tribal area, on the Afghan border. Ehsan said they would soon release video footage of the attack.
R P S Jaswal, deputy inspector general of India's Border Security Force which guards Wagah, said security has been stepped up along the Indian border although "our side is secure". "A red alert has been issued keeping in view the blast across the border in ... Pakistan," Jaswal told AFP by phone from his base near the city of Amritsar,