Mosque attack kills five in Pakistan

A powerful bomb exploded at a Shiite Muslim mosque packed with worshippers in Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city, today, killing five people and wounding at least 50 others.

The suspected suicide attack at the mosque inside a government-run religious school, shattered windows and pockmarked the walls with shrapnel and spattered blood.

Bits of flesh and pools of blood lay all around as rescue workers tended to the wounded.

The school, which houses students aged four to 18, has separate mosques for Sunni and Shiite Muslim worshippers. Witnesses said the school had been let out early, as it normally does on Fridays. Most of the victims were adults who were at the mosque for prayers.

Police official Sanaullah Abassi said five people were killed and more than 50 wounded at the Sindh Madrassah tul Islam school.

Sadir Durrani, a police explosives expert at the site, said he had found no timing or radio devices, indicating the blast may have been caused by a suicide bomber.

One of the men injured in the blast described the devastation.

“I was inside the mosque for Friday prayers when a bomb exploded with a huge bang,” said Kalb e-Abbas, 23. Something hit my arm, and I saw blood all over my body.”

E-Abbas said he could hear the cries of the injured people around him before stumbling out of the building.

Aftab Sheikh, a senior politician responsible for law and order, blamed anti-state elements for the blast, but he would not elaborate.

Sheikh said “today’s bomb attack was carried out by those people who were behind other terrorist attacks in Karachi.”

“I condemn this attack, it was a barbaric act,” he said.

Rescue officials piled blood stained carpets outside the shattered mosque.

At the nearby Karachi Civil hospital victims lay on the floor, bleeding and dazed, as doctors and nurses hurried between them.

Muslim clerics appealed for blood from mosque loudspeakers throughout the city.

Karachi, Pakistan’s business hub, has been hit by frequent acts of terrorism and sectarian violence.

About 80% 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.