Bomb hits funeral procession

2008-11-21 12:03

Peshawar - A bomb ripped through a funeral procession on Friday in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least seven people and wounding at least 40 others, police and hospital officials said.

The funeral in the town of Dera Ismail Khan was for a local Shi'ite figure shot dead on Thursday, in what appeared to be sectarian violence between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims.

"Seven bodies have been brought to our hospital after the blast," senior doctor at a local hospital, Ashiq Salim told AFP.

Salim said that 40 wounded were also brought to the hospital from the explosion, and that 18 of them were in critical condition.

"It looks like it was a remote control device" that caused the explosion, said local police official Sanaullah.

A security official told AFP the incident appeared to be another case of sectarian violence.

"The powerful explosion hit the funeral procession of a Shi'ite victim while it was on its way to the graveyard," local police official Khurshid Khan told AFP.

Shi'ites account for about 20% of Pakistan's 160 million-strong, Sunni-majority population.

The groups usually co-exist peacefully but outbreaks of sectarian violence have claimed more than 4 000 lives across Pakistan since the late 1980s.

- AFP