PAKISTAN: Troops enforced a curfew in the Pakistani city of Quetta yesterday as minority Shias reacted angrily to a sectarian attack on a religious procession which killed 44 people.
Shia leaders delayed the funerals of 32 of those killed in Tuesday's gun and grenade massacre in Quetta, demanding the resignation of the local police chief. They also alleged that Shia youths detained during the rioting, but later released, had been beaten in custody. "We will not bury our dead unless our demands are met," Shia cleric Jan Ali Shah told a news conference.
In the central city of Multan, hundreds of angry Shias clashed with police. Witnesses said that the police had detained more than 20 protesters and had used tear-gas and batons to disperse the crowd.
In the southern port city of Karachi, Shias set fire to five vehicles and two shops.
The attack in Quetta on a procession marking Ashura, one of the holiest days in the Shia calendar, was the worst sectarian violence in Pakistan since the suicide attack on a Shia mosque in Quetta last July which killed almost 60 people.
Shia leaders suspect that Tuesday's attack was the work of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, an outlawed militant group from the majority Sunni Muslim community with links to al-Qaeda. The militants have carried out many sectarian strikes in the past and witnesses said that the attackers' guns were painted with the group's name.
Police said that two of the attackers blew themselves up when surrounded on Tuesday. One was under guard in hospital. An intelligence source said that he had been identified as a Lashkar-e-Jhangvi member. A total of 13 people took part in the attack.