Curfew continues in Quetta after sectarian killings
Government says local incidents have no links with Iraqi massacres.
Lahore (AsiaNews) - On the 10th day of Muharram (Ashura) the death toll has risen to at least 60 victims in the country, as 15 more died in two other cities in Pakistan following the Quetta strikes.
The worst incident occurred in Quetta, a Pakistani city located on the borders of Uran and Afghanistan where at least 45 persons were reported to have died during an armed suicide attack on a Shiite procession. The huge procession was one of the routine activities organized each year by Shiite Muslims to mourn the tragedy of Karbala (680 A.D.).
According to eye witnesses three suicide bombers with hand grenades and other explosives tied to their bodies leaped into the procession from the second story of an adjacent building.
"Two of the suicide bombers blew themselves up while the third was caught by the police (in time)," said Abdulaali Tareen, Quetta's police chief.
The terrorists' explosions were followed by the firing of automatic weapons from the building at participants in the procession, which had more than 10 thousand attended. Armed guards accompanying the procession fired back at the terrorists.
The procession was immediately stopped for security reasons while gas and electrical services were also suspended due to mechanical problems.
The city's two public hospitals reported that 45 have already died while 27 were in serious condition. Five law enforcement officers were counted among those who died in the incident. Curfew, which was set after the attack, was not lifted during the day and no announcement was made for tomorrow. "Even in the areas where curfew is not imposed all movement by civilian has been stopped" a source told AsiaNews on the phone.
Meanwhile Shiite leader, Maulana Tarrabi, has demanded the release of 25 Shiite youth who were said to be still in police custody for taking part in a rampage after the procession attack in which an angry mob set ablaze about 40 shops, a bank and a cinema. "It is going to take some time" for the situation to calm down, said a member of the Baluchistan Provincial Assembly. Ambroze John Francis, when interviewed by AsiaNews. "The issue of (how to arrange) funerals will be crucial from a law-and-order point of view."
Speaking to the media, federal information minister, Sheikh Rashid, ruled out any connection between the coinciding attacks in Iraq and stressed that "the culprits will be apprehended by all means."
In other provincial cities 15 persons were killed on the same evening. Around 13 Shiite women and children died in Parachinar in the North West Frontier Province during a stampede following an electrical blackout. Two died during a gunfire incident in Phalia, a small town located in the Punjab Province. Ever since the emergence of militant Sunni organizations in 1982 in Pakistan, Ashura (the first 10 days in the month of Moharram and revered by the Shiites) has been marred sectarian violence. The latest incidents pose a challenge to the government's ongoing fight against terrorism and religious bigotry. (PJ)
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