Youths rampage after bombing

2004-05-08 08:48

Karachi - Angry youths torched two minibuses in this troubled Pakistani city on Saturday as minority Shiite Muslims mourned the killing of 14 people in a suicide bomb attack on a mosque, police said.

At least 10 vehicles were also gutted overnight as violence erupted in Shiite-dominated areas of Karachi soon after Friday's bombing.

On Saturday, protesters in the central Ancholi district hurled rocks at public and private vehicles, said police officer Imran Khan.

"They seized a minibus and set it on fire," he said.

Another group torched a vehicle in the Gulshan Iqbal neighbourhood, police said.

Police and hospital officials said 14 people were killed in Friday's blast, including the suspected suicide bomber, and more than 90 others were injured.

Violence 'was spontaneous'

The Shiite community declared three days of mourning and shops and markets were closed in some parts of the city on Saturday.

Community leader Syed Zafar Hasan Naqvi said the violence "was spontaneous, despite our advice to our youths to show restraint".

He said, "If the authorities do not bring the culprits to book, we could not stop them from resorting to agitation."

The suicide bomb shattered prayers at a crowded mosque, killing at least 14 people in the second deadly attack in Pakistan in two months.

The attack happened shortly after 13:00 on Friday at a mosque inside a government-run religious school. Bits of flesh and pools of blood were spattered everywhere as rescue workers tended to the wounded.

There was no word on the motive for the attack, which President Pervez Musharraf called a "heinous act of terrorism".

The Sindh Madrassah tul Islam school, for students aged four to 18, has separate mosques for Sunni and Shiite Muslim worshippers. Witnesses said the school had let out early, as it does on Fridays. Most victims were adults who came to the mosque for prayers.

Tariq Jamin, deputy inspector-general of Karachi police, said 14 people were killed. Dr. Razar Ali said most of the dead and 215 wounded were taken to the Civil Hospital.

Appealed for blood through mosque loudspeakers

Sadir Durrani, a police explosives expert, said he had found no timing or radio devices, indicating the blast was probably caused by a suicide bomber.

Several survivors described a man in a black robe and black turban who was sitting near the column where the bomb exploded.

Muslim clerics used mosque loudspeakers throughout the city to appeal for blood donations.

About 80 percent of Pakistan's 150 million people are Sunni, and the rest Shiite. Most live together in peace, but radical groups on both sides are responsible for frequent deadly attacks.

- AP