Bomb blast at muslim shrine leaves 20 dead

A suspected suicide bomber struck today at a popular Muslim shrine close to the official residence of Pakistan’s prime minister and the diplomatic enclave in Islamabad, leaving at least 20 mostly Shiite worshippers dead and scores wounded.

President Gen Pervez Musharraf condemned the worst attack in the capital for years and appealed for his countrymen to unite against “religious terrorism, sectarianism and extremism".

Security was stepped up in Islamabad – where the United States’ top diplomat for South Asia, Christina Rocca, had met with Pakistani leaders the previous day. The federal government instructed all four provinces to provide more protection to places of worship.

Witnesses said the bomb went off in an open space near the Bari Imam shrine on the final day of a five-day festival to commemorate an Islamic saint who is buried there, attended each year by thousands of Sunni and minority Shiite Muslims.

The blast ripped through a congregation of hundreds of Shiites under a canvas tent put up to shade them from the sun. They were preparing for the arrival of Shiite leader, Hamid Moasvi, a vehement critic of the US-led war on terrorism, who was about to deliver a sermon.

“There was an announcement that Hamid Moasvi is coming. Everybody stood up and then there was the explosion,” said Mohammed Ali, who was among the congregation. “Afterward, you couldn’t identify anyone. Some had their legs blown off, some had their hands blown off. I lifted so many of the people and my clothes were soaked with blood.”

Moasvi was not hurt, witnesses said.

Police immediately cordoned off the shrine, which lies about half a mile from the official residence of Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, and a similar distance from the diplomatic enclave where the US and other embassies are located.

An AP photographer at the shrine counted at least 20 bodies, many of them in pieces – scattered over about 50 yards – making it hard to give an exact figure. An intelligence official said at least 20 were killed and 150 were wounded.

Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said it appeared to be a suicide attack. He blamed “enemies of Pakistan and Islam.”

No one claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Hundreds of Shiite worshippers, beating their chests and heads in mourning, clashed with police near the shrine afterward when officers baton-charged the crowd to clear the way for ambulances. Some also chanted, “Down with America!”

Hours later, thousands of supporters of hardline Islamic groups attended earlier-planned rallies in Islamabad and other cities to protest the alleged desecration of the Koran at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The rallies passed off peacefully.

Witnesses said police collected the head of a suspected suicide bomber – an unidentified man aged around 30 with a small beard and curly hair – from the blast scene.

Ali Ahmad, an injured worshipper, said he had seen a man dressed in a police uniform who appeared to be the bomber walk inside the tent as worshippers recited the Koran. Police tried to stop the man but failed to prevent the attack, he said.

Another witness, SM Shirazi, said two bearded men he thought were the bombers entered the gathering and sat near a podium at the front. With the blast, he saw the body of one of them shoot through the roof of the tent.

Sectarian attacks are common in Pakistan. Sunnis make up about 80% of its 150 million people, and Shiites about 17%. Most live peacefully together, but extremist elements on both sides have a violent agenda. The schism dates back to a 7th century dispute over who was the true heir to the Prophet Mohammed.

In February, a gunbattle at a funeral procession near the Bari Imam shrine left three dead. That violence was believed linked to a feud between two families over control of the shrine, one of the most famous in the country.

The most recent major assault on a religious gathering in Pakistan was a bombing at a village shrine to a Shiite saint in Baluchistan province on March 19 that killed 46 people.