Suicide blast kills 20 at Pakistan mosque

A suicide attacker blew himself up at a Shiite mosque in the Pakistan city of Peshawar today killing at least five people and wounding 20.

The blast came as minority Shiite Muslims prepared to mark the Ashoura festival, which in previous years has been marred by sectarian violence involving rival Sunnis.

One man whose brother died in the blast, said the attacker, aged about 18, walked into the crowded Imambargah Qasim Baig mosque, opened fire with a pistol and then blew himself up.

“People present there tried to stop him. He took out a pistol, shot three times and then blew himself up,” Ashad Ali said.

Mayor Ghulam Ali said five people were killed and more than 20 wounded. He confirmed it was a suicide attack.

Fears of sectarian violence have added to tensions in Pakistan, where suspected Islamic militants have launched a wave of suicide blasts against security forces and politicians in recent months as the nation gears up for crucial parliamentary elections on February 18.

The attack was in the same quarter of Peshawar where a suicide attack last year during Ashoura killed 11 people.

Ashoura, which falls this weekend, is the culmination of Shiite rites during the holy month of Muharram when the death of Prophet Mohammed’s grandson, Imam Hussein is mourned – an event that led to the split in Islam between the Shiite and Sunni sects.

Shiites stage processions and beat their bare backs with chains and blades, bloodying themselves in a sign of penitence.

While most Shiites and Sunnis live peacefully together in the overwhelmingly Islamic nation of 160 million people, extremist groups from both sides are blamed for attacks.

Such violence breaks out during Muharram each year. In 2005, about 50 people were killed when a bomb ripped through a Shiite shrine in south-western Pakistan.

Sunnis outnumber Shiites by about 4 to 1 in Pakistan.