At least 24 people were killed and more than
40 injured as an explosion ripped through a procession of Shiite Muslims in
central Pakistan on Thursday, officials said, dpa
reported.
The bomb exploded in a procession of Shiite Muslims near a mosque in Dera Ghazi
Khan district, which is located in central province of Punjab.
"Twenty four people are confirmed dead and 45 are injured," the
provincial police chief Shaukat Javed told Urdu-language Geo news channel.
He said the Shiite Muslims were holding a procession after a traditional
religious gathering when the blast took place.
"According to the preliminary investigations a suicide bomber sneaked into
the crowd and blew himself up," said Athar Mubarak, the police chief in
Dera Ghazi Khan district.
"We found some ball-bearings and pieces of metal which are usually packed
with the explosives in a suicide jacket," he added.
According to Mubarak, between 12 and 14 kilos of explosives were used to target
the procession of more than 100 people.
Earlier, an official indicated that the bomb might have been planted along the
route of the procession. But Javed dismissed the theory. "It is unlikely
that it was a planted bomb because a planted bomb leaves a crater and we did
not find any crater at the site of the bombing," he said.
No one has so far claimed responsibility for the explosion that occurred around
7 pm local time.
Pakistan has a long history of violence between majority Sunni and minority
Shiite Muslims. Thursday's blast follows a number of suicide and other attacks
on Shiite Muslims over the past few months, mostly in the restive North Western Frontier Province.
Sunni Muslims make up about 80 per cent of Pakistan's more than 150 million
population. Most of the rest are Shiite Muslims.