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30 dead in bomb attack on Pakistan Shiite mosque
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-10-02 15:43

A suspected suicide bomb blast ripped through a Shiite Muslim mosque during Friday prayers in the eastern Pakistani city of Sialkot, killing at least 30 people and leaving dozens injured, police said.


A Pakistani policeman stands guard in front of a Shiite Muslim Mosque in Karachi. A suspected suicide bomb blast ripped through a Shiite Muslim mosque during Friday prayers in the eastern Pakistani city of Sialkot.[AFP]
Hundreds of worshippers were packed into the Mistri Abdullah Imambargah mosque in the city center when the huge explosion tore through the building, police spokesman Mohammad Ihsanullah told AFP.

"Thirty people have died so far and toll may rise as some of the injured are in critical condition," police officer Syed Ishtiaq Hussain Shah told AFP near the site of blast.

Body parts and blood were seen splattered across the interior of the mosque. The explosion left a large crater and caused extensive damage to the building.

"We believe the bomber carried the explosive into the mosque in a briefcase which he detonated while sitting amongst the worshippers and also blew himself up," an intelligence official, who would not be identified, told AFP.

"It is an act of terrorism...," police chief Nisar Ahmed told AFP. "We believe a suicide bomber carried out the dastardly attack at a time when hundreds of worshippers were present inside the mosque for Friday's prayers."

One of the wounded, Hamid Naqvi, said he and other worshippers had been listening to a sermon when "suddenly there was a big bang."

"There was panic and there was blood and screams all around," he said.

"Some of the bodies have serious burn wounds," doctor Mohammad Ali told AFP.

Several hundred angry protesters poured onto the streets outside the mosque after the blast and clashed with police, the police chief said.

Private television channels showed people crying and beating their chests. Some clashed with police and several police vehicles were burnt.

Paramilitary rangers surrounded the mosque and allowed only reporters and photographers inside as a crowd gathered outside.

A witness said police later found and defused another bomb, weighing about seven kilograms (15 pounds), outside the mosque.

A bomb disposal squad official said that the unexploded device contained five kilograms of high explosives and two kilograms of other materials, including shrapnel, and would have been able to cause devastation within a 60-foot radius.

"The bomb which exploded inside the mosque resembled it," in terms of make-up, disposal squad chief Muhammad Anwar Waraich told AFP.

President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz condemned the attack.

The incident "clearly shows that terrorists have no religion and are enemies of mankind", a state-run Associated Press of Pakistan report quoted Musharraf as saying in a statement.

Aziz said killing people at a place of worship was a "highly condemnable" act."

"Islam is a religion of peace and abhors terrorism," he said.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan also condemned the bombing saying: "No cause or motive can justify attacks on places of worship and innocent civilians."

"The secretary general condemns this cowardly act in the strongest terms. He also calls for calm and restraint in the wake of the dastardly act," Annan's spokesman said in a statement.

The attack came five days after Pakistani security forces killed the country's most wanted Sunni Muslim extremist, Al-Qaeda operative Amjad Farooqi, in a shootout in the south of the country.

Farooqi, the alleged mastermind of several attempts to kill Musharraf, was an activist in the Harkatul Jihad-e-Islam, a Sunni Muslim militant group blamed for the 2002 murder of US reporter Daniel Pearl.

Police said the attack could be retaliation for the killing of Farooqi.

Fanatics from Pakistan's Sunni Muslim majority and Shiite minority, most of whom co-habit peacefully, have been killing each other since the 1980s. The conflict has so far cost more than 4,000 lives.

The hardline and banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi was blamed for two bomb attacks on Shiite mosques in the southern port of Karachi in May and June which left 45 people dead.

The latest bombing also comes as the Pakistani security forces are locked in a fierce battle against Al-Qaeda which has seen a number of important arrests since July.

The most notable were Pakistani computer expert Naeem Noor Khan and Tanzanian Ahmad Khalfan Ghailani, who has been indicted by a US court for his role in the twin bombing of American embassies in East Africa in 1998.



 
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