Six people were killed when a KFC restaurant was set on fire by a mob angry about a suicide attack on a Shiite mosque in Karachi, bringing the overall death toll to 11, police said yesterday.
The fast-food chicken restaurant was targeted in overnight rioting after Monday's attack on the Madinatul Ilm Imambargah mosque, where three assailants clashed with police before exploding a bomb in violence that killed two attackers, two policemen and one worshipper and wounded 26 others.
Four of the victims at the restaurant were burned to death, while the two others died after taking refuge in a refrigeration unit, senior police official Manzoor Mughal said. The six bodies were recovered yesterday, bringing the overall death toll in the southern port city of Karachi to 11, he said.
Sunni Muslim extremists were suspected in the mosque attack, and it was unclear why KFC was targeted in retaliatory rioting, along with arson attacks on vehicles, shops, three bank branches and three gas stations.
However, the restaurant is heavily associated with the US and rioters in Pakistan typically attack symbols of Washington while on a rampage. Anti-US feeling grew in Pakistan after President Pervez Musharraf allied the country with Washington in the war on terror after Sept. 11, 2001.
Rauf Siddiqi, home minister of Sindh Province, of which Karachi is the capital, condemned the suicide bombing at the mosque and said security had been put on "high alert."
One of the three men involved in the mosque attack was hospitalized with injuries, police said.
He said his name was Moham-med Jamil and that he was from the outlawed Jaish-e-Mohammed militant group, which is accused of orchestrating several attacks against minority Christians, Shiites and government officials, police said on condition of anonymity.
The group is mainly fighting Indian forces in India's part of Kashmir, but its supporters are also known for their links with al-Qaeda.
Mushtaq Shah, chief of police operations in Karachi, said a "low-intensity bomb" was strapped to the body of one of the attackers and detonated inside the mosque.
The attack came three days after a suspected suicide bomber attacked a Shiite religious gathering during a festival at a shrine near Islamabad, killing about 20 people and injuring dozens.
"These incidents are happening one after the other. We are trying to find a link between them," he told the private Geo TV station. "This is a criminal and merciless attack."
Also on Monday, assailants shot and killed Aslam Mujahid, a senior member from Pakistan's largest Islamic group, Jamaa-e-Islami Pakistan, after he was kidnapped from a funeral for another slain member of the party.
Qazi Hussain Ahmad, head of the Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan, yesterday asked people to observe a complete strike in Karachi on today to condemn the killing of Mujahid, the mosque attack and a bombing at a shrine in Islamabad.
He also asked people to observe "protest day" on Friday to condemn alleged desecration of Koran at Guantanamo Bay.
Pakistan has a history of sectarian violence, mostly blamed on rival majority Sunni and minority Shiite extremist groups. About 80 percent of Pakistan's 150 million people are Sunnis and 17 percent Shiites.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number