Pakistan boosts security after suicide attack

Hundreds of police secured a religious procession through Peshawar in north-west Pakistan today, after a suicide bomber killed 15 people near a similar Shiite Muslim gathering and heightened fears of sectarian violence.

Police and paramilitary troops set up road blocks and frisked everyone approaching the Imambargah Hussainia mosque, where the procession of some 2,000 people began. Sharpshooters watched from the roofs of nearby buildings.

“Security is tight and all the entry points are under strict watch,” said Abdul Majeed Marwat, who was appointed city police chief after his predecessor was killed in Saturday’s bombing.

The processions are part of the Ashoura festival, when Shiite Muslims mourn the death of Imam Hussain, the grandson of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed.

Today’s march was led by a horse meant to symbolise Hussain’s steed which was decorated with religious motifs. About 200 followers beat their bare backs with blades attached to chains, drawing blood.

Ambulances moved with the procession, ready to take anyone needing medical aid to hospital.

Shops in Peshawar were closed in a sign of mourning for those killed in Saturday’s attack.

No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing that also wounded more than 30 other people. However Sunni extremists have repeatedly targeted minority Shiites during Ashoura.

After Saturday’s attack, the government put army troops on alert to guard against sectarian violence across the country. Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said soldiers were ready to deploy to any of 40 districts considered potential flashpoints for violence.

Most Sunnis and Shiites coexist peacefully in Pakistan, but militant groups on both sides are blamed for sectarian attacks that claim scores of lives every year. Analysts have suggested that the fierce sectarian violence in Iraq could fuel resentments also in Pakistan.

Security also was stepped up in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi, another frequent sectarian flash point, after an intelligence report indicated the threat of a car bombing.

Police and troops were ordered to check all vehicles entering the city for explosives, said Jehangir Mirza, chief of police for Sindh province, where Karachi is the capital.

Mirza said that police received intelligence yesterday that an explosives-laden car was heading to Karachi from near the South Waziristan tribal region in the north-west, where a militant leader earlier this month warned of attacks against the government.

Saturday’s blast went off in a bazaar about 200 yards from a mosque that was the starting point for the Shiite procession, which was cancelled. Most of the victims were police and municipal officials who were clearing the route.

The Sunni-Shiite schism over who was the true heir to Islam’s Prophet Muhammad dates back to the seventh century. Shiites represent about 20 per cent of Pakistan’s Muslims, and Sunnis about 80 per cent.