Hundreds Recovering from Park Attack in Pakistan
CURNOW: You're watching CNN. I'm Robyn Curnow. Thanks so much for joining us. Syrian president Bashar al-Assad says he's ready to hold an early presidential election if that's what the Syrian people want. Now he made the comments to Russia's state-run Sputnik news. Mr. Assad has faced growing pressure to hold an election in hopes that will help end Syria's five-year civil war. Talks in reaching a political solution to the conflict are set to resume next week in Geneva, Switzerland. A French court has indicted a recently arrested citizen on terrorism charges; 32-year-old Reda Kriket was arrested last week for allegedly plotting an attack on France. Officials accuse him of being in the advanced stages of planning. The French prosecutor says police found a cache of weapons and bombmaking materials in his home. A Belgian court previously convicted Kriket in absentia for being part of a jihadist network. Meanwhile Belgian prosecutors say police carried out a new raid in Northwest Belgium in connection to Kriket's case. And Turkey's president says European countries are operating with blinders on when it comes to the threat of terrorism. Recep Tayyip Erdogan talked about that when he sat down with our Christiane Amanpour for an exclusive interview. He says Belgium missed an opportunity to avoid the attacks in Brussels, ignoring a warning from Turkey months ago about one of the bombers.</s>CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN HOST: Why do you think they did not pick up your intelligence and particularly, the Dutch say that your government did not alert them to the fact that he had jihadi tendencies?</s>RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, PRESIDENT OF TURKEY (through translator): Of course both the Netherlands and Belgium, for someone having a jihadi intention or not, first they need to know what jihadi intention means. We have to identify whether these are foreign fighters or jihadists. The Netherlands nor the Belgians seem to have understood what jihadist stands for. We have been calling the nations for a common stance against terrorism and many of the European member states seem to have failed to attach the significance that this call for action deserves.</s>CURNOW (voice-over): You can watch the whole of Christiane's exclusive interview with the Turkish president coming up on "AMANPOUR." That starts Thursday at 7:00 pm in London, only on CNN. And Pakistani police have arrested 17 suspects in connection with Sunday's suicide bombing in a local park. Intelligence officials and police began a series of raids late Wednesday. They say more arrests are expected. The Easter Sunday attack left at least 74 people dead, including many children. A Pakistani Taliban splinter group has claimed responsibility. The attackers said they were targeting Christians but most of the victims were Muslim. Almost 400 people were hurt in that bombing and, again, since the target was a popular park, many of the wounded were children. A warning now: some viewers may find the images in our next report disturbing. Saima Mohsin went inside one of Pakistan's hospitals, where people are recovering from traumatic injuries.</s>SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A 3-year-old boy that can barely be held because he's covered in burns.</s>MOHSIN (voice-over): Tears stinging his face, Shabalza's (ph) cries ring out across the ward. He's inconsolable, in extreme pain. Shabalza's (ph) mother is in intensive care with severe burns. His father, split between two wards, this man is a neighbor. He's been at Shabalza's (ph) bedside since the attack. Sharing the bed, his cousin, Bermina (ph), just 4 years old, shrapnel wounds on her skull. Her uncle tells me she has special needs. She doesn't know her father and sisters have died. "I have lost count of how many family members have died," he tells me. Kiza's (ph) chest is peppered with ball bearings. He and his friends were just deciding which ride to go on when --</s>KIZA (PH), ATTACK VICTIM (through translator): I felt like something was on fire. And there was an explosion. My friend grabbed me and pulled me to the ground. He saved my life.</s>MOHSIN (voice-over): His friend is lying in a bed opposite him. In each ward, we found friends, complete strangers, family, tending to their loved ones. "He shouted, 'Mama,' down the phone. Oh, his voice," his mother tells me. "My heart sank as he told me, 'A bomb's gone off. Please come to me. I'm in hospital.'"</s>MOHSIN: You'll notice this is a mixed ward. Young children, men and women are being kept in together because the doctors are keen that these traumatized families are kept together.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a horrible picture. There were about 137 patients within 20 minutes and with every patient we had 20 other people, who were well-wishers or their relatives. So we had to bring immediately about 30 doctors and 40 nurses and we had to open up 20 more operating rooms.</s>MOHSIN (voice-over): Many of the patients agreed to talk to us but others are in intensive care. We didn't film them. They haven't regained consciousness since the attack.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had to open up the abdomen of these patients because sharp things had gone into them and we had interrupted their intestine. And we had about 10 patients who had serious head injuries because their brain had been entered by these sharp objects.</s>MOHSIN (voice-over): Local people are coming together to deliver food and toys to the families and children like Shabalza (ph), who will live with the physical and mental scars of this bombing forever -- Saima Mohsin, CNN, Lahore, Pakistan.