News Update Service
June 1, 2004 : 0300 Hrs
15 dead, over 35 injured in Karachi mosque blast
Karachi, June 1. (AP): A bomb explosion ripped through a Shia Muslim mosque in the southern city of Karachi on Monday, killing at least 15 people and wounding more than 35, police said.
According to witnesses, a blast rocked the Imam Bargah Ali Raza mosque during evening prayers, the latest in a series of terrorist attacks to hit Pakistan's largest city.
A senior official said the attack was possible retaliation for the assassination of Nazamuddin Shamzai, a a senior Sunni Muslim and leading pro-Taliban cleric here on Sunday.
Horrifying tales
"I heard a big explosion, followed by flames from the front of the mosque and I saw two injured people falling on the road, bleeding, and one had no legs," said Ghulam Hussain, a fruit vendor, who witnessed the blast from about 200 meters (yards) away.
Tariq Jamil, chief of operations of Karachi police, said it was a "high-intensity bomb" and at least 15 people were killed and more than 35 injured.
Most of the casualties were taken to three hospitals in private vehicles. Other bodies were retrieved from the debris and ferried off in ambulances.
Ali Abbas, a young worshiper at the mosque, was pushing people out of the area, saying there was an abandoned bag in the mosque and he was afraid it contained another bomb, but inside people were still gathering up human flesh.
Bomb disposal experts later arrived and took the bag away.
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said President Gen. Pervez Musharraf had expressed grief over the killings and would take an "important step" in response to the incident. Ahmed did not elaborate.
Blast sparks riots
The bombing triggered riots in at least four Shia-dominated districts of the city.
Hundreds of Shia youths set fire to two police vehicles and a gas station outside the mosque, and then ransacked two government offices, stealing furniture and torching it at a traffic intersection.
Police fired tear gas, trying to disperse the mob. Six or seven gunshots were heard, but it wasn't clear who fired them. Rioters beat up several press photographers taking pictures of the unrest.
Interior Ministry spokesman Abdur Rauf Chaudhry said it was "too early" to say who was behind the bombing, but said "it appears to be sectarian" violence.
On Sunday, unidentified gunmen assassinated a senior Sunni Muslim cleric Nazamuddin Shamzai, triggering huge riots across Karachi and stoking fears of sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shias.
Monday's blast "could be a reaction to yesterday's incident," Chaudhry told The Associated Press in the capital Islamabad.
A witness who was inside the mosque at the time of the blast said he thought the bomb was thrown inside from a moving car.
Extensive damage
The blast razed a two-room office of a trust that runs the mosque, and collapsed one wall in an adjacent area where people wash up before praying.
The explosion shattered windows in a tall building opposite the mosque, which lies near the city center on Karachi's main highway, M.A. Jinnah Road. Shards of glass were scattered on the asphalt.
Police cordoned off the surrounding area.
Jamil said it wasn't immediately clear if it was a suicide attack, saying that police were unable to gain access to the mosque because of the mob. He said a vehicle belonging to a bomb disposal squad was among the those destroyed by rioters.
Saqlain Raza, a worshipper who was parking his motorcycle outside when the blast occurred, estimated that about 30 to 35 people were inside the mosque at the time.
"I fell down and the motorbike fell on me. I pushed away the bike and tried to run, and I started hearing screaming people so I rushed inside.
"One three-year old child was bleeding from the head and stomach. I carried the boy out and a car took him to hospital."
Karachi Pakistan's largest city of 14 million people and the country's commercial center has been the scene of recent sectarian violence and terrorist attacks, including twin car bombings near the U.S. Consul's residence last week.
On May 7, a suicide bombing at a Shia Muslim mosque killed 20 people.
Much of the violence is blamed on Islamic militants, angered by Musharraf's support of the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism in Afghanistan, but clashes between radical elements among majority Sunnis and Shias are also common.
Hardliners plan stir
Meanwhile, in a separate development, police stepped up security patrols after Islamic hard-liners called for a nationwide strike in protest against the gunning down of Nazamuddin Shamzai, a leading pro-Taliban cleric.
His murder has sparked off massive rioting by his followers. The situation was tense though police said there was no immediate outbreak of violence following a day of unrest that saw police fire tear gas and warning shots to disperse rioters who set fire to banks, shops, a police station and a KFC fast-food restaurant.
Police formed a special task force to investigate the slaying of Nazamuddin Shamzai, a cleric in his 70s who had been a strong supporter of the former Taliban regime in neighboring Afghanistan and had met al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
The Sunni cleric had a large following in Pakistan. The United Action Forum, a coalition of six fundamentalist parties, called for a "complete nationwide strike" on Friday to protest his slaying and to pressure police to arrest the attackers.
Copyright © 2004, The Hindu.