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Pakistan bomb kills 22
09/02/2006 12:33 - (SA)
Kohat - At least 22 people were killed and more than 50 were wounded in an attack on a Shi'ite procession and resulting riots in northwestern Pakistan Thursday, the local mayor told AFP.
"We have a confirmed death toll of 22 and it is likely to go up. More than 50 were wounded," Ghaniur Rehman, the mayor of Hangu town told AFP after the blast targeting Shi'ites marking the holy Ashura festival.
Some of the dead included Sunnis killed in subsequent gunfire but the precise tally was not known, Rehman said.
"We have reports that some bodies are still lying in the streets and because of the violence and bad security situation they cannot be removed," the mayor added.
"The army has reached the town and some order is now restored but it is still a very bad situation is some parts of the city."
Shi'ite mobs were blocking police vehicles, paramilitary trucks and ambulances at Ustarzai, about 25km east of Hangu, witnesses said. The protesters also torched some passing vehicles.
The army units that reached Hangu had come from another direction, officials said.
- AFP
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