 At least 11 people were killed, six of them burnt alive, in remote northern Pakistan yesterday in violence that erupted after an attack on a minority Shi'ite Muslim leader, official and hospital sources said. The authorities imposed a curfew in Gilgit, the main town in the mountainous region known as Northern Areas, and called out the army to quell the violence after enraged Shi'ites went on the rampage following the attack on Ziauddin Moosavi. A mob set fire to the house of a forest department official, burning alive the official and five others. A local health department official was also attacked and killed. Moosavi was travelling in his car to a mosque in the centre of Gilgit, some 240km north of the capital Islamabad, when unidentified gunmen opened fire at him, critically injuring Moosavi and his three guards. Two of the guards later died. |