Mobs attack police, torch buildings
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) -- A suicide attacker detonated a bomb at a prayer service in southern Pakistan Tuesday, police said, killing at least 41 people including the top leadership of an influential Sunni Muslim religious group.
Military forces were put on alert to contain widespread violence and vandalism that flared across southern Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, as angry youths torched vehicles and gas station after the attack, a senior Pakistani army official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.
"The bomber used about 5 kilograms (11 pounds) of explosives obtained locally and we have collected his body parts," Siddiqui said.
'Whoever did this was not a Muslim'
Hospital officials said at least 41 people were killed in the attack, not including the bomber.
Among the fatalities were the Tehrik group's leader, Abbas Qadri; his deputy, Iftikhar Bhatti; and another top official, Akram Qadri, group spokesman Abdul Rafey said.
"Whoever did this was not a Muslim," said another Tehrik leader, Tanveer Shafi.
It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the bombing, but similar attacks here in the past have been linked to simmering Shiite-Sunni Muslim tensions, and most have been blamed on outlawed extremist groups.
"It is a very unfortunate incident," Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said.
Officials at three Karachi hospitals said they received the bodies of 41 people slain in the attack, including 25 at state-run Jinnah Hospital, 10 at the Civil Hospital and six at the Liaquat National Hospital.
'I saw body parts everywhere'
Mayhem erupted in the park after the explosion as scores of men wearing long white, blood-splattered robes clambered onto the stage to assist victims, some apparently dead and others wounded and waving their arms for help.
A thick cloud of white smoke caused by the blast hung above the park, where the bodies of several slain worshippers were on the dusty ground amid the wreckage from the damaged stage.
Crowds of people ran frantically in different directions, many aiding and carrying wounded victims to dozens of ambulances that arrived at the scene. Some waved green flags bearing quranic scripture. Others wept.
Police officers fired into the air to disperse crowds that massed at the scene.
"I saw body parts everywhere," witness Mohammed Asif said. "I saw people collecting body parts and putting them into ambulances."
The bombing was one of Pakistan's deadliest, rivaling a March 19, 2005, bombing that killed 43 people at a Shiite shrine in the southwestern Baluchistan provincial town of Naseerabad.
President Pervez Musharraf condemned the attack and ordered increased security at religious events, adding that the culprits "will not go unpunished," according to a statement issued on Pakistan's state-run news agency.
Not the first assassination attempt
The Tehrik (Urdu for Movement) group is said to be Karachi's largest Sunni Muslim religious group, boasting a massive following particularly in Karachi's southern suburbs.
The group, which was formed more than seven years ago, was first led by Salim Qadri, who was murdered in Karachi four years ago along with four followers. He was replaced by Abbas Qadri, who had survived at least two assassination attempts before Tuesday's bombing.
Soon after Tuesday's bombing, violence erupted in nearby southern areas of Karachi, where support runs high for Tehrik, as groups of youths burned at least three gas stations, buses, a fire truck, police van and an ambulance.
Scores of police and paramilitary forces deployed to Karachi's streets to try to contain the violence, but were met several times by angry mobs hurling stones and bottles at them.
Crowds also massed at hospitals where the slain and wounded were taken, pounding on windows and forcing their way past guards in an attempt to see loved ones.
A young boy taken to a hospital with burns to his face said he was praying in the park when the blast ripped through the crowd.
"I saw fire and smoke after the big explosion," the unidentified boy told privately owned Geo Television.
Television footage inside several Karachi hospitals showed scores of victims lying in crowded wards being treated as a screaming woman wailed over one of those killed in the blast, the body covered by a white sheet.
ONE OF THE MOST TRAGIC EVENTS HIT THE CITY OF KARACHI TODAY.PLZ OFFER A SILENT PRAYER FOR THOSE WHO LOST THEIR LIVES .
MAY THEIR SOUL REST IN PEACE.AMEEN
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