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| Monday, 7 July 2003 |
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Angry Pakistanis mourn dead in mosque attack QUETTA, Pakistan, Sunday (Reuters)-Thousands of angry mourners packed a Shi'ite Muslim cemetery in the Pakistani city of Quetta as last rites were held for many of the 47 people killed in a suicide attack on a mosque. A curfew imposed by police and soldiers shortly after Friday's attack by three suicide bombers was eased during the day, but was reimposed by nightfall as tensions between Shi'ites and majority Sunni Muslims remained high. At least one person, a teacher at a Sunni Muslim seminary, was killed late on Friday by crowds enraged by the mosque attack, officials said. Interior ministry investigators were in Quetta, and ministry spokesman Iftikhar Ahmed said police had detained a handful of people in connection with the assault on the mosque. He declined to give any further details, but security sources told Reuters that the Sunni Muslim Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group, blamed for sectarian violence and linked to the murder of U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl, was among the prime suspects. Local officials said angry protesters seeking revenge for the attack had raided a Sunni Muslim seminary in Quetta and killed a teacher late on Friday. Earlier Shi'ites, most from the Hazara tribe, rampaged through Quetta, shooting into the air and torching property, vehicles and the wing of a hospital. Meanwhile Pakistani police have arrested a prominent Islamic militant belonging a group which has been blamed for many sectarian killings and has been linked to the murder of U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl, officials said. Allah Wasaya was detained in Lahore. Police did not say which crimes the militant was wanted for, but a senior police official told Reuters: "He was one of the most wanted members of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi." Meanwhile Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf condemned a suspected sectarian attack on a mosque which killed up to 47 people and further damaged the country's reputation abroad. The president hit out at the suicide bomb and grenade attack in the south-western city of Quetta on his return from a four-nation tour of the West in which he sought to convince foreign leaders that Pakistan was a safe investment proposition. "I fought for removing travel advisories against my country. This is what gets affected by these terrible acts," he told a news conference at Chaklala airbase after returning from Paris. "I go and say something and this unfortunate incident takes place here in our country and as a leader I feel small." |
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