LAHORE, 12 October 2004 — Pakistani police have detained more than a dozen people after a suicide bomber attacked a Shiite mosque in Lahore killing three people plus himself, a security official said yesterday.
The attack was the latest in a rising wave of sectarian bloodshed ahead of the holy month of Ramadan, bringing the death toll from attacks between rival Sunnis and Shiites to 171.
The suspected bomber, aged between 25 and 30, had forced his way into the Kashmiryan Mosque in the city’s congested Mochi Gate neighborhood carrying a bag.
He went into the hall and when the guards grabbed him he detonated the device. The blast killed two security guards and a 12-year-old boy.
Investigators examined the body of the bomber whose head was severed after he detonated the device as worshippers prepared for evening prayers Sunday, an intelligence officer told AFP.
Police questioned more than a dozen suspects detained in raids overnight, the officer said on condition of anonymity.
Shops and markets in the area remained closed as the dead were buried yesterday, residents said.
Sunday’s attack was the third bombing incident this month in the Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province.
A suicide bomb attack on Oct. 1 in a Shiite mosque in Sialkot city bordering India left 30 people dead, while a car bomb attack on a gathering of an outlawed Sunni radical party in southern Punjab’s city of Multan on Oct. 7 killed 41 people.
In another attack in Karachi, the port city capital of southern Sindh province, two Sunni clerics were gunned down in a driveby shooting Saturday.
Authorities tightened security in Lahore, the Punjab capital and Pakistan’s second largest city, the day after the suicide bomb, fearing protests and revenge attacks. Authorities have provided metal detectors to both Sunni and Shiite mosques and religious schools.
“We are also installing closed-circuit televisions at sensitive religious places,” the official said.
Provincial Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi met security officials and religious scholars to discuss steps to maintain religious harmony during Ramadan starting this weekend, officials said.
Pakistan’s majority Sunni and minority Shiite communities largely live together in peace. Officials blame the tit-for-tat violence on fanatics from the two sects and the conflict has so far claimed more than 4,000 lives since the 80s.
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the recent surge in violence was “a conspiracy” to create instability.
“There is no Shia-Sunni rivalry in the country and leaders of both sects know that it is a conspiracy by those who want to plunge the country into instability,” he said, without naming the suspected conspirators.
Meanwhile, the Iran-Pakistan border has been sealed and police in Balochistan have been put on high alert to arrest Multan bombing mastermind Dr. Qaiser Raza, a militant of Shia group Sipah-e-Muhammad.
Sikandar Hayat, the district police officer of Multan, announced the arrest of another militant Asad Abbas Shah for providing financial assistance to the terrorists.
He said police investigation had revealed that Dr. Raza had stayed at Shah’s home for nearly a month and a white car used in the bombing had been seen at his residence at Kumharanwala, Multan. However Shah’s brother and family members denied the report.
Hayat said: “We are confident that Dr. Raza is the mastermind of the Multan bombing. He also planned to kill Maulana Azam Tariq in Lahore through Mehram Ali. We sought help from the government of Balochistan to prevent him from crossing the border.” He said that one of the robbers of the white car, Ali Taqi, was also taken into custody.
