Suicide bombing kills 35 in Pakistan

A policeman guards a burning shop torched by an angry mob after a bomb blast in the town of Hangu, Pakistan. Picture / Reuters

HANGU, Pakistan - At least 35 people were killed and dozens wounded in Pakistan today in a suicide bombing on a Shi'ite Muslim procession and subsequent violence on the holiest day of the year for the religious minority.

The bombing targeted a procession in the town of Hangu in North West Frontier Province to mark Ashura, the end of 10 days of mourning for Shi'ites. Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said there had been three blasts.

Pakistan has suffered Islamist sectarian violence for years, most of it directed by majority Sunni Muslims against Shi'ites.

Analysts say that in recent years attacks by Sunni groups linked to al Qaeda have appeared to have a broader aim of destabilising the rule of President Pervez Musharraf and his alliance with Washington in the US-led war on terrorism.

Unidentified gunmen also opened fire on a bus outside Hangu, killing four passengers, including a woman, and injuring two, officials said.

Superintendent Mohammad Ayub of the Hangu police said four people died in a shootout during a curfew imposed after the bombing -- one policeman, a soldier, and two civilians.

In neighbouring Afghanistan, at least five people were killed and 27 wounded in clashes between Shi'ites and Sunnis during the Ashura commemoration in the western town of Herat.

Abdul Rashid, medical superintendent at Hangu hospital, said 29 people had been confirmed dead there. "Some of them have bullet wounds. All of them are Shi'ites."

A leader of the procession, Maulana Khurshid Anwar, said a bomb exploded near a stage as he was about to address mourners.

Enraged Shi'ites set shops and a bank on fire and fired shots into the air in the town 200 km west of Islamabad.

NWFP police chief Riffat Pasha said the bombing was a suicide attack and troops and armoured personnel carriers were sent to restore order. Troops put up barricades on roads into Hangu.

Among the bodies at Hangu's Civil Hospital was one that was headless and some bystanders said it was that of the bomber.

Most shops at the site of the blast in the main bazaar were burnt and some were still ablaze. The street was littered with scraps of clothing and sandals. Sporadic gunshots could be heard.

Hangu Mayor Ghani-ur-Rehman said he did not believe sectarian rivalry was responsible. "I think it is not a Shi'ite-Sunni affair -- it is terrorism," he said, adding that there were also Sunnis in the procession, including himself.

"I don't believe Sunnis of Hangu would attack the Shi'ites."

Sunni-Shi'ite violence has killed thousands since the 1980s.

Pakistani Shi'ite leader Sajid Ali Naqvi called the Hangu incident "religious terrorism" and accused Musharraf's government of failing to rein in Sunni militants.

"Unless action is taken against them the situation will continue to move to a serious danger," he said.

Ashura marks the martyrdom of Imam Hussain, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammad. Tensions tend to rise during Moharram, the mourning period leading up to Ashura.

During Moharram, Shi'ites stage big processions and beat themselves with sharpened chains to mourn the death of Hussain, the Prophet Mohammad's grandson, in a battle in Iraq in 680 AD.

The period has been marked in the past by sectarian violence and security across Pakistan had been tight in recent days with extra police and paramilitary troops on duty.

Differences between Sunnis and Shi'ites are rooted in a controversy that erupted in the very earliest days of Islam, over who should succeed the Prophet after his death in 632 A.D.

Sunnis, a majority of Muslims worldwide and in Pakistan, regard Abu Bakr, one of Mohammad's companions, as his successor, while Shi'ites revere Ali, the prophet's son-in-law and cousin.

- REUTERS