Four dead in Pakistan mosque blast

An attack and suicide bombing at a Shiite Muslim mosque in the southern city of Karachi today left at least four people dead - three of them the attackers - and a dozen injured, police said.

The attack occurred during evening prayers at the Madinatul Ilm Imambargah in eastern Karachi, said Asif Ijaz, a Karachi police official.

Ijaz said three attackers stole an automatic weapon from a police guard who was posted outside the mosque and shot him dead. Other policemen on duty nearby opened fire, killing two of the attackers.

The third managed to enter the mosque and detonate a bomb strapped to his body.

Rauf Siddiqi, home minister of Sindh province of which Karachi is the capital, condemned the bombing and said security has been put on “high alert”.

The attack at the Karachi mosque came three days after a suspected suicide bomber attacked a Shiite religious gathering during a festival at a shrine near Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, killing about 20 people and injuring dozens of others.

The motive of the Karachi attack was not clear. Political and sectarian violence between radical groups within the majority Sunni and minority Shiite Muslims is not uncommon in Karachi, however.