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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — At least 10 people were killed in southwestern Pakistan on Wednesday when a suspected suicide car bomb exploded in a crowd of Shiite worshippers near a mosque, police officials said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Sunni militants were suspected in the attack, which occurred on a day when Muslims celebrate Id al-Fitr, a holiday at the end of Ramadan. At least 20 people were wounded in the blast, officials said.
The explosion took place in the Murriabad neighborhood of Quetta, the capital of southwestern Baluchistan Province. Sectarian attacks are frequent in the city.
Shiites are a minority in the country and Sunnis hold a majority. Though both sects generally coexist peacefully, extremist Sunni groups often make religious minorities their targets.
A low-level insurgency by nationalists of the Baluch ethnic group has simmered in the province. Taliban militants have also found a safe haven in the province.
“The damage would have been more extensive had the terrorist managed to come closer to the mosque,” said a police official. The explosive-laden vehicle was detonated in a parking lot near a mosque of Shiite Muslims. Remains of a badly mutilated body were found inside the car.
Local television news networks broadcast images of ambulances carrying the dead and injured to hospitals as distraught worshippers milled about. Plumes of smoke swirled in the debris-strewn street as several vehicles caught fire.
Soon after the blast, Shiite protesters staged a rally at the site of the blast and chanted slogans against the government for failing to ensure stringent security measures against terrorists.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani condemned the bombing in a statement released by his office. “Those elements playing with lives of innocent people would not escape the wrath of Allah and law of the land,” he said
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.nytimes.com/2011/09/01/world/asia/01pakistan.html
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