Pakistan boosted security yesterday after a suspected Sunni extremist opened fire in a Shiite mosque and then blew himself up, killing 10 people and stoking fears of more attacks during a major Muslim festival over the weekend.
The strike late on Thursday in Peshawar wounded 19 people, including a prominent Shiite cleric, ahead of this weekend's Ashoura festival, which often is scarred by sectarian violence.
The blast added to tensions in Pakistan as it prepares for the Feb. 18 parliamentary elections that many predict will weaken Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's grip on power.
Suspected militants have launched a wave of suicide attacks against security forces and politicians in recent months, killing at least 400 people including opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, a secular politician who had vowed to battle the militants.
Arshad Ali, whose brother died in Thursday's blast, said the attacker was a man about 18 years old who walked into the crowded Imambargah Qasim Baig mosque, opened fire with a pistol and then blew himself up.
"People present there tried to stop him," Ali said, wailing and beating his chest in grief. "He took out a pistol, shot three times and then blew himself up."
It was not clear whether any of the dead or wounded were hit by the gunfire.
City police chief Tanvir Sipra said the remains of the bomber had been recovered from the floor of the mosque.
Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said "security was already tight, but it has further been beefed up across the country" as a result of the blast.
Shiite rites during the holy month of Muharram culminate this weekend with Ashoura, when tens of thousands of the minority group stage processions and beat their bare backs with chains and blades, bloodying themselves in a sign of penitence.
Sunni extremists, who regard Shiites as heretics, regularly launch attacks on the community during the month.
In 2005, about 50 people were killed when a bomb ripped through a Shiite shrine in the southwest.
In the aftermath of Thursday's attack, a crowd of enraged Shiites, crying and beating their chests, prevented an Associated Press reporter from entering. Police also had difficulty approaching the mosque. Hundreds more Shiites gathered at the hospital where the wounded were taken and chanted religious slogans.
During Muharram, Shiites mourn the seventh century death of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, Imam Hussein -- an event that led to the split in Islam between the Shiite and Sunni sects.
Sunnis outnumber Shiites by about four to one in this nation of 160 million people.
In a prerecorded appearance broadcast late on Thursday on state television, Musharraf described suicide attackers as "mad" and misguided into thinking they were serving Islam.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese