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| India-Pakistan |
| Suicide bombing kills dozens in Karachi |
| 2006-04-11 |
| This seems more likely to be an inta-Sunni attack to me, as the Salafis cannot stand anyone celebrating the birthday of Mohammed. A suicide bomber blew himself up in the Pakistani city of Karachi as Sunni Muslims celebrated the birth of the Prophet Mohammed, killing at least 47 people including several religious party leaders, officials said. The attacker climbed onto a wooden stage in a public park as a crowd of around 50,000 offered sunset prayers, then approached the religious leaders and detonated explosives strapped to his body, police said. Angry mobs waving black flags rampaged through the streets after the blast, burning motorcycles, cars, a bus and a fire engine, and police fired tear gas and live rounds in the air to disperse them, witnesses said. "At least 47 people have died in this incident," Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said. He told state television that around 100 injured people had been rushed to hospital. The blast yesterday scattered body parts and corpses dressed in white ceremonial outfits across Karachi's historic Nishtar Park, while dazed and bloodstained worshippers wandered through the smoke. Amid piercing screams and wails of grief, men wearing green turbans dragged the dead and the most seriously injured to ambulances. Green Turbans are the uniform of the Sunni Tehrik, a Brehvli Sunni group that has been in a turf war with the MQM for the past couple years, but suicide bombing isn't the MQM's style. The Sunni Tehrik has also had clashes with Deobandi groups over control of Mosques and the donations that go to them. I'm not aware of any serious disputes between the Brehvlis and the Shias. "I was near the back of the stage when I heard a huge explosion and something hit my head," said 40-year-old worshipper Mohammed Osman. "When I woke up there were pieces of flesh everywhere." "It was a suicide bombing," said Karachi police chief Niaz Siddiqi, adding that the man was wearing the same robes as the Sunni followers. "The suicide bomber got onto the stage and as they were praying he exploded himself. We took extra security measures but since he was part of the group on the stage it was very difficult to prevent." The influential chief of Pakistan's relatively moderate Sunni Tehreek religious party, Abbas Qadri, died in the blast, party official Abdul Rafey said. Qadri, 45, was a firebrand speaker who had a massive following in volatile Karachi and had survived several attempts on his life in the past. The party's deputy chief Akram Qadri and spokesman Iftikhar Bhatti also died in the blast, along with the leaders of two other moderate Sunni factions: Hafiz Mohammed Taqi and Hanif Billo. "Since he was on the stage he was there for a specific purpose, and most of the leadership were on stage," police chief Siddiqi said. After the blast religious leaders called from the remains of the stage for volunteers to go to hospital and donate blood. Witnesses said the massive blast also triggered panic and a mob of up to 5,000 people fought running battles with riot police, which continued hours after the explosion. Some of the faithful also surrounded local hospitals, where they chanted and waved their fists in the air as bodies covered in bloodstained white sheets were stretchered inside, television footage showed. Military ruler President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz strongly condemned the "heinous act" and ordered security to be stepped up at mosques, a government statement said. |
| Posted by:Paul Moloney |