KARACHI, Pakistan - Mobs of youths rioted in this southern city for a second straight day Wednesday to protest a suicide bombing that killed at least 57 people, which a top Pakistani official said was aimed at "eliminating" the leadership of a moderate Sunni Muslim group. | Quibble: they weren't "eliminated", they were eliminated. Murdered. Stone cold dead. No need for sneer quotes. |
Amid soaring sectarian tensions, hundreds of security forces blocked main roads and shut schools throughout Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, to prevent a repeat of Tuesday's riots that broke out after the suicide bombing. But a group of youths, apparently supporters of the Tehrik group, rampaged through a neighborhood, setting fire to a bus and two cars and smashing shop windows before police forces, aided by local Islamic clerics, brought the situation under control, said area police chief Shah Nawaz Khan.
Shop keepers in Multan, a Punjab provincial city 230 miles north of Karachi, closed their doors to protest the bombing, while about 150 Islamic students staged a noisy rally at a busy intersection in the capital, Islamabad. "We demand answers for the blood of these martyrs," the students chanted.| And vows of Dire Revenge(tm) can't be far off. Happy birthday, big Mo. |
Police on Wednesday confirmed that a lone unidentified suicide bomber detonated an 11-pound bomb near Sunni dignitaries seated in a downtown Karachi park Tuesday at a religious service with 10,000 other worshippers. The service, to mark the birthday of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, was organized by moderate Sunni groups including the Tehrik group, whose top two leaders and a third senior official were among the 57 people killed, including the bomber. Numerous Tekrik leaders, including its founder, have been killed since forming more than seven years ago. The group promotes a moderate form of Islam and members are known to have close ties with Shiite Muslim groups. But hard-line Sunni groups are opposed to more liberal groups, like Tehrik, and their more moderate schools of thought. Simmering tensions between hard-line Sunni and Shiite groups have also been behind previous attacks. |