Pakistan Boosts Patrols After Bombing
"India/Kashmir/Pakistan"01/28/2007
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) - Heavily armed police and security forces patrolled streets in Shiite-dominated areas Sunday following a suicide bomb attack near a Shiite mosque that killed 15 people.
The Saturday attack that wounded more than 30 others came as Pakistan's Shiites began ceremonies in connection with their most important annual festival, Ashoura, which often has been a target of anti-Shiite violence.
Akram Durrani, the chief minister of North West Frontier Province, asked people to demonstrate "patience and maintain religious discipline," state-run Associated Press of Pakistan news agency reported.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suspicion will likely fall on Sunni extremists.
Most Muslims from the majority Sunni and minority Shiite sects coexist peacefully in Pakistan, but militant groups on both sides are blamed for sectarian attacks that claim scores of lives every year.
Some fear the relentless sectarian fighting in Iraq risks igniting Sunni-Shiite tensions in other Muslim countries.
"The increasing sectarian violence in Iraq will definitely add tension here, and I think it is going to reunite sectarian elements, who have targeted each others' worship places in the past," said Talat Masood, a political and defense analyst.
The blast went off in a bazaar area about 200 yards from a mosque that was the starting point for the Shiite procession, which was canceled. The blast caused a power outage that left the city center in darkness, complicating rescue efforts.
Most of the victims were police and municipal officials who were clearing the route for the Shiite procession, police said. The city's police chief, Malik Saab, was among the dead, said provincial police chief Sharif Virk.
Investigators have collected human remains and bomb shrapnel from the scene of the bombing, said Fayyaz Toru, head of investigation department of Peshawar police.
Toru would not speculate on who might be behind Saturday's attack in Peshawar or a motive, only describing it as a "terrorist act."
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in fighting al-Qaida, condemned the "terrorist attack" and ordered an immediate inquiry, the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan reported.
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 percent of Pakistan's Muslims, and Sunnis about 80 percent.
The attack happened as a U.S. congressional delegation visited Islamabad, about 90 miles from Peshawar. They met with Musharraf for talks were expected to touch on cooperation against Taliban and al-Qaida militants and U.S. aid to the South Asian country, officials said.