A suicide bomber struck Thursday in Pakistan on the holiest
festival for Shiite Muslims, triggering a riot that left a
provincial town in flames and at least 27 people dead and more than
50 wounded.
After the bombing, which appeared to be a sectarian attack,
security forces battled enraged worshippers who torched shops and
cars and took up positions on hills overlooking Hangu, a market
town of about 200,000 people, where the sound of gunfire echoed
through the smoky streets.
Pakistan declared a curfew and deployed its army to restore
order in Hangu.
District police chief Ayub Khan said 23 people died in the
bombing and riots that followed. Three other men and a woman died
in a separate shooting on a minibus on the outskirts of town,
according to a commander of the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary,
Aziz ur-Rahman. Security officials said Shiites protesting the
bombing had blocked a road and fired on the vehicle.
Akram Durrani, the top elected official in the province, said a
preliminary investigation showed the attack in Hangu was a suicide
bombing, but he gave no further details.
Witnesses said a procession of about 300 people in black
mourning clothing had come out of the Imam Barga Quami, a Shiite
mosque, at about 9:45 AM and were passing the town bazaar when the
explosion went off.
"The procession started and we were beating our chests. All of a
sudden there was an explosion in the procession," said Asar
Hussain, 45, who suffered shrapnel wounds to his torso, head and
legs. He believed it was a suicide attack but did not see the
bomber.
Vegetable vendor Mohammed Jamil said panic followed.
"Some people rushed to the injured and dead bodies, others went
to houses and took out weapons and knives and kerosene oil and
started setting fire to shops, destroying everything," he said.
An Associated Press reporter who evaded police roadblocks to
enter Hangu saw most of the bazaar destroyed, some shops still in
flames and thick smoke drifting through the streets. Soldiers
patrolled the streets, some in armored personnel carriers.
There was an occasional sound of gunfire, and sometimes the boom
of heavier weapons, as troops fired at protesters who took up
positions on hilltops surrounding the town.
"Curfew has been imposed. People should stay in their houses and
not come out," a police officer announced through a loudspeaker
mounted on a van in Hangu.
Helicopters landed at a police training college in the town and
took 27 of the more than 50 wounded away for treatment at an army
base.
In neighboring Afghanistan, hundreds of Shiites and Sunnis
clashed in the western city of Herat, hurling grenades and burning
mosques. At least five people were killed and 51 wounded.
Thursday's violence in Afghanistan began after 300 Sunnis threw
stones at a Shiite mosque, said Ismatullah Mohammed, a senior
police officer. Shiites retaliated by attacking a camp for
displaced people. Violence spread, with both sides throwing
grenades, burning about a dozen cars and two mosques, he said.
In Iraq, tens of thousands of Iraqis marched and beat themselves
in blood-soaked processions through the holy city of Karbala, but
no holiday-related violence was reported amid tight security to
prevent Sunni Arabs from attacking the event, as they have the
previous two years, killing more than 230 people.
The Shiites were marking Ashoura, when they pound their chests
and flail their backs with chains and blades to mourn the
7th-century death of Imam Hussain, a grandson of the Prophet
Muhammad. Hussain's death fueled a rivalry between Shiites and
Sunnis over who should succeed the prophet.
(Chinadaily.com via agencies February 10, 2006)
