(AKI) - A bomb killed at least five people and injured 40 on Friday at a funeral for a local Shia Muslim cleric in the northwest Pakistani town of Dera Ismail Khan, police said. Local news reports quoted unnamed sources as saying the death toll was as many as seven to ten people, however. Angry protestors opened fire on police after the bombing, prompting security forces to cordon off the area and put the town on high alert, according to news reports.The attack sparked an outbreak of shooting around the hospital where the dead and wounded were brought, triggering a stampede, news reports said. Police fired tear gas in an attempt to restore order, the reports added.
The funeral was for a man killed on Thursday in what police said appeared to be sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shias. A Shia cleric was also killed early on Friday before the funeral, reports said.
Sectarian violence between Sunni Muslim and Shia groups has plagued Dera Ismail Khan, a district bordering the lawless South Waziristan tribal region, a Taliban and Al-Qaeda stronghold bordering Afghanistan.
Dera Ismail Khan was in August the scene of a suicide bombing that targeted a Shia protest over the killing of one of their local leaders. The blast killed 23 people.