Military launches new offensive following Lahore bombing

“Coordinated operations are underway against terrorists and hardened criminals,” read a military statement.

The statement also included images of military helicopters hovering over the plains of Punjab and paramilitary troops loading ammunition into trucks and preparing for an operation.

The offensive comes after a Taliban suicide bomber killed 73 people in a popular Lahore park. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, the Taliban faction that carried out the bombing, said Christians were the target of the attack.

The incident illuminated festering extremism in Punjab, the home province of three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and provincial authorities said they would launch a crackdown against militant groups in the province.

The country is still scarred by a Taliban assault on a Peshawar school in 2014 that killed 150 people, mostly children.

A military operation targeting insurgents was stepped up in response. Last year the death toll from militant attacks was the lowest since the Pakistani Taliban was formed in 2007.