Blast in Pakistan mosque
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) - January 17, 2008 The blast came as minority Shiite Muslims prepared to mark the
Ashoura festival, which is often marred by sectarian violence
involving rival Sunnis.
Arshad Ali, whose brother died in the blast, said the attacker
was a man aged about 18 who 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," Ali said, wailing and
beating his chest in grief.
It was not immediately clear whether any of the dead or wounded
were hit by the gunfire.
Peshawar police chief Tanvir Sipra said seven people including
one policeman who tried to stop the bomber from entering the mosque
were killed and a few policewomen were among the wounded.
A crowd of enraged Shiites, crying and beating their chests,
prevented an Associated Press reporter from reaching the scene.
Police also had difficulty approaching the mosque.
The blast in Peshawar occurred when the Imambargah Qasim Baig
mosque was crowded with worshippers.
Ashoura, which falls this weekend, is the culmination of Shiite
rites during the holy month of Muharram when they mourn the seventh
century death of the prophet Mohammad's grandson, Imam Hussein - 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 this 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 southwestern Pakistan.
Sunnis outnumber Shiites by about 4 to 1 in Pakistan.
In a prerecorded appearance on state television, aired late
Thursday, President Pervez Musharraf described suicide attackers as
"mad" and misguided into thinking they were serving Islam.
Near Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, dozens of Pakistani
troops abandoned an outpost on Thursday after receiving threats
from Taliban militants, according to an intelligence official and
an insurgent spokesman. The army denied their accounts.
If the seizure of the fort is confirmed, it would raise
questions about the U.S.-allied government's ability to control the
frontier area, where Taliban and al-Qaida fighters responsible for
rising attacks in both Pakistan and Afghanistan are known to
flourish.
The intelligence official, who requested anonymity because he
was not authorized to speak to the media, said the paramilitary
troops fled the roadside post without a fight after the militants
warned them to vacate or face attack.
The official, who was in the area, said the troops had already
reached a military base in the nearby town of Jandola.
Maulvi Mohammed Umar, a purported militant spokesman, said the
troops surrendered after 500 fighters surrounded the post.
"We released them (the troops) under the spirit of Islam," he
said by telephone from an undisclosed location. "The Taliban have
now hoisted their white flag on the fort."
But the army denied the fort had fallen.
"I strongly contradict this news and this post in our
control," said army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, who was in
the capital, Islamabad. It was not immediately possible to
reconcile the conflicting reports.