Bomb attack on Shi'ite parade kills five

25 Nov 2012, 9:28 pm   -   Source: AAP
The Pakistan Taliban has claimed a bomb blast that killed eight people near a Shi'ite procession. (AAP)

The Pakistan Taliban has claimed a bomb blast that killed eight people near a Shi'ite procession. (AAP)

Officials say the bomb exploded in Dera Ismail Khan, where a day earlier a blast claimed by the Taliban killed eight people near a Shi'ite Muslim procession.

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A bomb attack on a Shi'ite Muslim procession has killed five mourners and wounded more than 80 in northwest Pakistan as Shi'ites mark their holiest day Ashura.

Officials say the bomb exploded on Sunday in the city of Dera Ismail Khan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where a day earlier a blast claimed by the Taliban killed eight people near a Shi'ite Muslim procession.

"Five people were killed and 83 injured in the bomb blast," Shafeerulla Khan, a senior government official in regional capital Peshawar told AFP.

Khan said preliminary investigations indicated the device was planted inside a shop but police were probing whether a suicide bomber was involved.

A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban soon claimed responsibility for the bombing and threatened more attacks.

"It was a suicide attack and we claim responsibility for it," Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.

He repeated his threat made Saturday that the Taliban had dispatched more suicide bombers across the country for attacks against the minority community.

The Pakistani Taliban had also claimed a suicide attack that killed 23 people Thursday at a Shi'ite procession in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

But Nazir Khan, a police official in Dera Ismail Khan, insisted Sunday's blast was from a bomb planted inside a shop. "It was a remote-controlled bomb and exploded as a procession reached here," he said.

Police official Anwar Khan Akbar confirmed the new death toll and said the target of the attack was the Ashura procession.

Khalid Aziz, a doctor in the city's main hospital, told Pakistan's private ARY TV channel some of the injured were in critical condition.

Pakistan has deployed tens of thousands of police and paramilitary forces to try to avert sectarian clashes or attacks on Ashura processions, when Shi'ites whip themselves to mourn the seventh-century killing of the Prophet Mohammed's grandson Imam Hussein.

Authorities have ordered heightened security, with services for mobile phones - which are often used to trigger bombs - suspended in major cities.

Shi'ites, a minority in Sunni-dominated Pakistan, have been marking the holy month of Muharram which culminated Sunday in Ashura.

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