Pakistan ripped anew by bombs, scores killed
Source: Agencies |
September 4, 2010, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
Suicide bombings targeting religious minorities killed at least 44 people in Pakistan yesterday, sharply driving up the toll of sectarian assaults in a country already battered by massive flooding.
A blast killed at least 43 people in the southwestern city of Quetta at a Shiite procession calling for solidarity with Palestinians, Police Chief Ghulam Shabir Sheikh said. He said 78 people were wounded and several were in critical condition.
Earlier yesterday, a suicide attack on a mosque belonging to the minority Ahmadi sect killed at least one person and wounded several others in the northwest town of Mardan.
In Quetta, protesters dragged wounded people into private cars as burning motorcycles sent clouds of black smoke billowing through the streets. Bodies of dead and wounded lay strewn across the road.
Some Shiite youths fired in the air after the blast, and Qazi Abdul Wahid, a senior police official, said officers were trying to control the situation.
Shiite leader Allama Abbas Kumaili appealed to participants to remain peaceful.
"We understand these are attempts to set Sunni and Shiite sects against each other," he said.
The attack in Quetta was the second this week on Pakistani Shiites, who by some estimates make up about 20 percent of the population in the mostly Sunni Muslim country, although figures are imprecise.
A triple suicide attack on Wednesday night killed 35 people at a Shiite ceremony in the eastern city of Lahore.
Kumaili said the attacks against minority sects were a result of government failure.
"Our government concentrates all its efforts to secure VIPs. Common men are not their priority," he said.
Government officials have said they cannot protect outdoor gatherings from attacks, and Interior Minister Rehman Malik called on Thursday for Shiites to hold religious ceremonies indoors.
Terror warning
Baluchistan provincial Police Chief Malik Iqbal said officials had warned organizers of the Quetta ceremony to stick inside a security cordon after intelligence agents received reports of a possible terror attack.
"They violated the route," Iqbal said. "We had warned them not to extend their rally out of the cordon."
Wednesday's attack in Lahore, and a host of other assaults on religious minorities, was claimed by the hardline Sunni Pakistani Taliban, which is seeking to overthrow a government shaken most recently by flooding that has caused massive displacement, suffering and economic damage.
The floods, spawned by heavy rains weeks ago in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and elsewhere in the mountains of northern Pakistan, have killed more than 1,600 people and affected about 20 million people. The waters are still swamping rich agricultural land in the southern provinces of Sindh and Punjab.
Flood victims say they have received little government help, and most assistance has come from private charities.
Police official Ahsanullah Khan said the bomber in yesterday's attack on the Ahmadi mosque in Mardan appeared to have detonated himself after he was prevented from entering the building.
In May, two teams of seven militants armed with hand grenades, suicide vests and assault rifles attacked two Ahmadi mosques in Lahore, killing 97.
Many mainstream Muslims consider the Ahmadis heretics for believing that their founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, was a savior foretold by the Quran, Islam's holy book. They say Ahmadis are defying the basic tenet of Islam that says Muhammad is the final prophet.
A blast killed at least 43 people in the southwestern city of Quetta at a Shiite procession calling for solidarity with Palestinians, Police Chief Ghulam Shabir Sheikh said. He said 78 people were wounded and several were in critical condition.
Earlier yesterday, a suicide attack on a mosque belonging to the minority Ahmadi sect killed at least one person and wounded several others in the northwest town of Mardan.
In Quetta, protesters dragged wounded people into private cars as burning motorcycles sent clouds of black smoke billowing through the streets. Bodies of dead and wounded lay strewn across the road.
Some Shiite youths fired in the air after the blast, and Qazi Abdul Wahid, a senior police official, said officers were trying to control the situation.
Shiite leader Allama Abbas Kumaili appealed to participants to remain peaceful.
"We understand these are attempts to set Sunni and Shiite sects against each other," he said.
The attack in Quetta was the second this week on Pakistani Shiites, who by some estimates make up about 20 percent of the population in the mostly Sunni Muslim country, although figures are imprecise.
A triple suicide attack on Wednesday night killed 35 people at a Shiite ceremony in the eastern city of Lahore.
Kumaili said the attacks against minority sects were a result of government failure.
"Our government concentrates all its efforts to secure VIPs. Common men are not their priority," he said.
Government officials have said they cannot protect outdoor gatherings from attacks, and Interior Minister Rehman Malik called on Thursday for Shiites to hold religious ceremonies indoors.
Terror warning
Baluchistan provincial Police Chief Malik Iqbal said officials had warned organizers of the Quetta ceremony to stick inside a security cordon after intelligence agents received reports of a possible terror attack.
"They violated the route," Iqbal said. "We had warned them not to extend their rally out of the cordon."
Wednesday's attack in Lahore, and a host of other assaults on religious minorities, was claimed by the hardline Sunni Pakistani Taliban, which is seeking to overthrow a government shaken most recently by flooding that has caused massive displacement, suffering and economic damage.
The floods, spawned by heavy rains weeks ago in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and elsewhere in the mountains of northern Pakistan, have killed more than 1,600 people and affected about 20 million people. The waters are still swamping rich agricultural land in the southern provinces of Sindh and Punjab.
Flood victims say they have received little government help, and most assistance has come from private charities.
Police official Ahsanullah Khan said the bomber in yesterday's attack on the Ahmadi mosque in Mardan appeared to have detonated himself after he was prevented from entering the building.
In May, two teams of seven militants armed with hand grenades, suicide vests and assault rifles attacked two Ahmadi mosques in Lahore, killing 97.
Many mainstream Muslims consider the Ahmadis heretics for believing that their founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, was a savior foretold by the Quran, Islam's holy book. They say Ahmadis are defying the basic tenet of Islam that says Muhammad is the final prophet.
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