Suspected suicide blast in Pakistan kills 18
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-05-27 15:52

At least 18 people were killed and dozens wounded by a suspected suicide bombing at a Muslim shrine in the Pakistani capital Islamabad on Friday, where thousands had gathered to pay homage to city's patron saint.

The blast occurred at the Bari Imam shrine, which is close to Pakistan's main government buildings and the diplomatic enclave, where many embassies and diplomatic residences are located.

Pakistani Muslim devotees grieve over dead bodies following a bomb blast at a shrine in Islamabad. A suicide bomber blew himself up in the middle of a crowd of mainly Shiite Muslim worshippers at a Pakistani shrine, killing at least 14 people and injuring dozens.[AFP]

"Our men have counted 18 bodies; many people have been wounded," said Haroon Shehzad, an official of Edhi Welfare Foundation, a private emergency service.

"Our initial information suggests it was a suicide attack," Islamabad police chief Talat Mehmood Tariq told Reuters.

Thousands of devotees from the majority Sunni Muslim and minority Shi'ite Muslim sects were attending a festival at the time of the explosion.

"Many (Shi'ite) mourners have been martyred and many wounded," Qamar Haider Zaidi, a Shi'ite Muslim preacher, told reporters as bloody, limbless bodies were recovered from the scene. "Shi'ites and Sunnis were both there."

Another Shi'ite cleric, Syed Guftar Hussain Sadiqi, said the blast appeared to be the work of banned Sunni militant groups or "foreign elements".

The casualties included women and children.

Some blood-stained bodies were covered with religious banners and Shi'ites beat their chests in grief.

It was the latest incident of religious violence to rock Pakistan, which has been a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terror since the September 11 attacks in 2001.

U.S. VISIT

It came as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca was concluding a visit to the country and as peace talks with Pakistan's nuclear-armed rival India were taking place in the city of Rawalpindi adjoining Islamabad.

The blast also occurred hours before hardline Islamists were due to stage an anti-U.S. rally outside parliament to protest the alleged desecration of the Koran, the Muslim holy book, at the U.S. military detention centre at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Witnesses said the explosion appeared to have happen close to a podium where a sermon was being delivered.

"We were listening to a sermon when there was a huge blast; Everything went black and I couldn't hear anything," said Munazar Abbasi, who was slightly wounded.

"For a while I didn't know what was going on, then we got up we saw bodies all around us," he said. Pieces of flesh from other victims were stuck to Raja Basharat's long cotton tunic, but he himself was only slightly wounded.

He came to the hospital to look for his son.

"After the blast we all ran away. My son was with me. I can't find him," he said.

The Bari Imam shrine is dedicated to Shah Abdul Latif Kazmi, also known as Barim Imam, a 17th century Sufi teacher who is Islamabad's patron saint. Friday's ceremony was one held annually to pay homage to him.

Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said it was too early to say who was responsible, but Pakistan has long been troubled by sectarian violence and more than 100 people have died in tit-for-tat attacks by Sunni and Shi'ite militants in the past year.

A senior security official said there may have been two suicide bombers, one of whom was thought to have had about two kg (four pounds) of explosives strapped to his chest. "Witnesses saw his body flying through the air," the official said.

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