http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=210814
December 29, 2009 Suicide bomber kills 30 at Pakistan Ashura procession Complied by GJ KARACHI - A bomb attack ripped through a mourning procession in Pakistan's commercial capital Karachi on Monday, killing 30 people and wounding dozens more, police and hospital officials said. The mainly Shia worshippers were commemorating Ashura, the holiest event on the Muslim calendar, and the parade in Karachi was the biggest in Pakistan. Pakistan had deployed tens of thousands of police and paramilitary forces, fearing sectarian clashes or militant bombings would target mourning processions. "It was a suicide attack," Karachi city police chief Waseem Ahmed told DawnNews. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani swiftly condemned the deadly blast. They expressed grief over the killings of innocent people and expressed their resolve to fight extremism and terrorism until the elimination of the menace, the Associated Press of Pakistan reported. Prime Minister Gilani appealed to the religious and political leadership to help calm down the situation after the blast. He also asked the workers to offer maximum help to the injured. Television pictures showed a big cloud of smoke over the scene and reporters said angry worshippers attacked journalists and police and set fire to shops and vehicles. Karachi has a history of ethnic and factional violence, although it has been spared the brunt of Taliban attacks due to the excellent administration of the city mayor over the past couple of years. Witnesses said pandemonium broke out after the explosion, with angry mourners throwing stones and firing bullets into the air, restricting the movement of ambulances and sparking calls from the authorities for calm. Fire broke out after the blast, fanning thick smoke into the sky, and people were running in all directions, an AFP reporter said. "I appeal on people to vacate the area. This will help us rescue the injured," said the Karachi police chief. In Karachi, more than 50,000 Shia Muslims had poured into the streets to commemorate Ashura. It was the second bomb attack to mar Ashura commemorations in Pakistan after a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a main Shia mosque in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, killing seven people late Sunday. Ashura falls on the 10th day of a 40-day mourning period during the Islamic calendar's first month, Moharram, which commemorates the death of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammad, who was killed in battle in 680 AD in the Iraqi city of Karbala. Sectarian violence periodically flares in Pakistan between Shias and Sunnis. Shiites account for about 20 percent of Pakistan's mostly Sunni Muslim population of 167 million. More than 4,000 people have died in outbreaks of sectarian violence in Pakistan since the late 1980s. Photo: An angry mob charges towards police after setting ablaze shops and vehicles at the site of a suicide bomb attack on a procession of Shia Muslims commemorating Ashura in Karachi December 28, 2009. (Reuters photo) [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
