Suicide blast in mosque sparks bloody rampage

A MOB angered by an al-Qaida-linked suicide bombing in a Shi’ite mosque set a KFC restaurant on fire in Karachi in overnight rioting, killing six employees and bringing the overall death toll to 11, police said yesterday.

Security in Karachi shifted into “high alert,” said Rauf Siddiqi, home minister of Pakistan’s Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital.

The bomber slipped into the mosque during a shoot-out with police that left another attacker and two officers dead, and blew himself up during evening prayers, killing one worshipper and wounding 20.

An enraged crowd of about 1,000 Shi’ites, many beating their chests in mourning, rampaged afterward in this southern city, setting fire to cars and shops and killing at least six more people.

Police recovered the bodies from a KFC restaurant burned by the mob. All were restaurant employees, senior police official Manzoor Mughal said. Four were burned to death, while two others died after taking refuge in a refrigeration unit, he said.