Pakistani police fired teargas to disperse hundreds of angry Shi'ite Muslim mourners who went on a rampage in Karachi yesterday, a day after six Shi'ites were killed in an attack on a bus. "We will avenge the killings," shouted the crowd of about 1,000 mourners during a funeral procession for one of the six people killed in the Friday attack.
| Just waiting for them to start hollering "Death to the Great Satan!" |
Two or three gunmen riding a motorcycle opened fire with automatic weapons on a bus carrying Shi'ite Muslims to a mosque for main Friday prayers, killing five on the spot. A sixth man died in hospital. Eight people were wounded. No group claimed responsibility but police blame Sunni militants for most of the sectarian bloodletting in Pakistan. Yesterday young men and boys burnt tyres to block a main road and side lanes in Karachi's central district, threw stones at cars and motorcycles and damaged police vehicles, a police post and petrol stations. Witnesses said some of the protesters suffered minor injuries in scuffles with police, who struggled to control the crowd. Police said they had detained at least eight people. "The situation is now under control," city police chief Tariq Jamil said. Most of the dead and wounded in the Friday attack were employees of Pakistan's Space & Upper Atmospheric Research Commission, using a company bus. |