Suicide bombing at Shia procession in Pakistan kills 20 (Fourth Lead)

ISLAMABAD - A suicide bombing tore through a procession of Shia Muslims in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi Monday, killing at least 20 people, officials said.

Hundreds of Shia mourners were marching on the main M.A. Jinnah Road lined with multi-storey buildings when the attacker detonated his explosives close to the front rows of the procession.

“Twenty people are confirmed dead and more than 80 others wounded,” Karachi’s police chief Waseem Ahmed said. The victims included soldiers and children.

Sagheer Ahmad, health minister in the Sindh province of which Karachi is the capital, told Geo News television channel that the death toll might increase as many of the injured were in critical condition.

Television images from the scene of the blast showed pools of blood and several damaged police cars and ambulances that were moving ahead of the procession. A helicopter hovered overhead.

The attack sparked riots, with mobs burning shops and more than a dozen vehicles.

Karachi’s Mayor Mustafa Kamal said the strike was aimed at causing tension between Shiites and Sunni Muslims, and to disturb peace in the city. He called upon both sects to exercise restraint.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik blamed Islamist insurgents.

Malik said Taliban, Al Qaeda and Sunni militant groups had formed a “triangular syndicate” to destabilize the country.

He condemned the violence that followed the suicide blast, and said paramilitary troops had taken control of the troubled districts.

The attack took place despite deployment of more than 10,000 police and paramilitary troops in Karachi to provide security for the religious processions.

Monday marked Ashura, the climax of the holy month of Muharram. Shia Muslims commemorate this annual religious festival to mourn the killing of Prophet Mohammed’s grandson, Imam Hussein, in the year 680.

During Ashura, observed on ninth and 10th days of Muharram, Shias dress in black, and wail, pound their chests and flagellate their backs with chains and blades.

The holy month often sees deadly sectarian violence between majority Sunnis and minority Shias, who make up around 20 percent of Pakistan’s population of nearly 170 million.

Monday’s bombing came one day after a suicide attacker blew himself up among Shias holding a march in the Pakistan-administered Kashmir, killing at least eight people.