Six people, including three assailants, were killed in a suicide bomb attack on Monday at a minority Shi'ite Muslim mosque in southern Pakistan, the latest Haider said one of the attackers blew himself up. City police officer Asif Aijaz Shaikh said one attacker snatched a gun from a police guard at the mosque and shot him dead. "When they heard the fire, the two other police guards responded and opened fire on the two assailants standing outside the mosque, killing them. At this point, the assailant inside the mosque blew himself up," Shaikh said. Rizwan Edhi of the Edhi Welfare Trust emergency service said groups of people angered by the blast set fire to a nearby outlet of the American fast food chain KFC and also attacked a hospital.
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One worshipper died and four were seriously injured in the blast. Sixteen others were treated at local hospitals, said Zafar Hussain, an administrator of the mosque. Police, however, said the blast was weak. "It appeared to be a low-intensity bomb because it did not cause major damage," said Mushtaq Shah, chief of police operations in Karachi.
About 1000 outraged members of the Shia community, many beating their chests in mourning, burned about a dozen vehicles, a restaurant, two gas stations and eight shops near the mosque, Ijaz said. Two electricity transformers were also set on fire, plunging the mosque and the neighbourhood into darkness as mobs burned tires.