**Stringent security measures have been put in place in Pakistan after a series of attacks in Lahore and the north-west of the country killed about 40 people.**Checkpoints have been installed and a one-way system is in operation on key roads in the eastern city of Lahore.
Authorities in the capital, Islamabad, have also temporarily banned passengers from riding on the back of motorcycles and bicycles for security reasons.
Meanwhile, many of the police killed in the attacks have been buried.
The funerals for 11 policemen killed in one of the attacks, on Lahore’s Manawan police training school, were held on Thursday night.
Senior state officials and politicians attended the funeral prayers.
‘Protracted battles’
Earlier on Thursday police fought protracted gun battles with militants at a federal security building and two police academies in Lahore leaving 26 people dead.
A suicide car bomb at a police station in the north-western town of Kohat left 11 dead, while another car bomb in the nearby city of Peshawar killed a child.
A one-way system was in operation in front of the Federal Investigations Agency (FIA) building in Lahore after the attacks.
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The FIA building was also targeted in a deadly suicide attack in March 2008.
Lahore’s Manawan police training academy where 11 people died, including three militants, had also been targeted by insurgents earlier this year.
Security on the Bedian road, where a third attack against a police commando training centre unfolded, was tight.
Police in Lahore have been stopping commuters at road checkpoints for questioning.
A security alert is also in force in Islamabad where the government called in security reinforcements from a paramilitary force, the Rangers.
The authorities also banned people riding pillion on motorcycles and bicycles for one month.
This is viewed as a security threat because of the possibility of militants launching attacks from the back of motorcycles.
More than 150 have died in Pakistan in militant attacks in the past two weeks.
The militant onslaught comes ahead of an expected military offensive against the Pakistani Taliban in their South Waziristan stronghold on the Afghan border.
Later on Thursday US President Barack Obama signed into law a $7.5bn (£4.6bn) civilian aid package for Pakistan on Thursday.
The aid package has proved controversial in Pakistan where many in the military establishment believe there are too many conditions attached to the aid.
Pakistan’s foreign minister is set to brief senior political and military figures on the aid package on Friday after his return from a trip to the United States.
Lahore, the centre of Pakistan’s cultural life, was long spared the brunt of unrest, but has seen a string of deadly attacks throughout 2009.
In one of the most notable incidents, in March, gunmen attacked the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team, killing six policemen.
OTHER RECENT MILITANT ATTACKS IN PAKISTAN
- 12 October - Security convoy attacked in Swat valley, 41 die
- 10 October - Militants attack Rawalpindi army HQ - 20 killed
- 9 Oct - At least 50 die in Peshawar suicide blast
- 5 Oct - Five killed in suicide bomb at UN Islamabad offices
- 26 Sept - 16 die in suicide car bombs in Peshawar and Bannu
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