Homestead mailing list

[Tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>]

Shiites Riot in Eastern Pakistan City After Funeral for Suicide Attack 
Victims

*By Asif Shahzad* Associated Press Writer
Published: Oct 2, 2004

        Advertisement
        

SIALKOT, Pakistan (AP) - Thousands of minority Shiite Muslims rampaged 
through an eastern Pakistan city Saturday in a riot sparked by a suicide 
bombing at a Shiite mosque that killed 31 people.

Rioters set fire to a police station and the mayor's office in Sialkot, 
destroyed several motorcycles and attacked a court. Firefighters rushed 
to the scene, while troops tried to restore order.

"The army is handing the situation, but violence is still going on," 
said Mohammed Irfan, an official at the city's police control room.

There were no immediate reports of injuries.

The violence broke out after about 15,000 mourners, beating their chests 
and wailing, gathered for a funeral for victims of Friday's bombing at 
the Zainabia mosque, which also wounded more than 50 people.

The attack came less than a week after Pakistani security forces killed 
Amjad Hussain Farooqi, a top Pakistani al-Qaida operative who was a 
member of a radical Sunni Muslim militant group - leading to speculation 
the bombing was retaliation for his death.

The bombing touched off angry protests by Shiite young people Friday, 
who ransacked shops and gas stations and damaged dozens of vehicles. 
Army troops were deployed in the city amid fears of sectarian unrest 
despite appeals by Shiite clerics for calm.

Meanwhile, police investigators searched for clues at the mosque and 
questioned witnesses about the identity of the bomber. Officials 
declined to speculate who was responsible.

"At this stage I cannot say whether al-Qaida was involved," provincial 
law minister Raja Basharat Elahi said.

Police reported witnesses as saying the attacker walked into the mosque 
carrying the bomb in a briefcase and the moment he opened it, a blast 
ripped through the mosque, killing 16 people on the spot. Fifteen others 
died later.

"I confirm that the suicide attack on a mosque in Sialkot killed 31 
people," Elahi said. He said 29 bodies have been identified, and efforts 
were underway to identify the remaining two.

"Maybe, one of them or both were the suicide bombers," he said.

After the blast, experts defused a second briefcase bomb outside the 
mosque - likely saving many lives as hundreds of Shiites had gathered 
there to protest the attack.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in fighting al-Qaida, 
condemned the blast, which he said showed "terrorists have no religion 
and are enemies of mankind." He renewed his government's commitment to 
root them out.

In the three years since Musharraf threw Pakistan's support behind the 
U.S.-led war on terror, Islamic militants, often linked to al-Qaida, 
have launched repeated attacks against the government and Western targets.

Violence has also been directed at Shiites, who make up about 20 percent 
of Pakistan's 150 million people, most of whom are Sunni Muslims.

Although the vast majority live together peacefully, there are extremist 
elements in both sects who launch attacks.

Farooqi, who was killed last Sunday in a shootout with paramilitary 
police in a southern town, was a member of the Sunni militant group 
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi - blamed for two bombings of Shiite mosques in Karachi 
in May that killed more than 40 people.

Officials say Farooqi was a recruiter for al-Qaida, and he was accused 
in a string of terrorist attacks in Pakistan, including the kidnapping 
and beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002, and two 
assassination attempts against Musharraf in December 2003 that killed 17 
other people.

Friday's blast in Sialkot, 145 miles southeast of the Pakistani capital, 
Islamabad, caused mayhem in the industrial city, where Shiites and 
Sunnis generally live in harmony.

"I was praying when I first saw a bright light and then something 
exploded with a big bang, and I fell down," said Sajjad Anwar, 36, who 
was being treated at a hospital.

"I saw human body pieces hitting the walls and ceiling of the mosque," 
he said.

Another injured man, Mumtaz Ali Shah, 43, said: "My mind stopped working 
for a while after the blast, but when I opened my eyes, I was lying 
among dead bodies."

AP-ES-10-02-04 0802EDT