Karachi holds funeral for blast victims
- 11 years ago
(ROUGH CUT ONLY - NO REPORTER NARRATION)
Thousands of mourners on Monday (March 4) attended funeral prayers for seven victims, a day after a suspected suicide bomber attacked Shi'ite Muslims as they were leaving a mosque in Pakistan's commercial capital Karachi, killing at least 45 people.
Around 149 were wounded. Doctors said the death toll could rise because many of the wounded were in a critical condition.
The funeral prayers were offered at a Shi'ite mosque in the central district of Karachi.
The blast was seen as another signal that Sunni militants are escalating sectarian attacks.
Military offensives and U.S. drone strikes against the Taliban in Pakistan have reduced the number of suicide attacks on government and military targets over the past year.
But Sunni groups, most prominently the al Qaeda-linked Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), have escalated attacks against Shi'ites, who they believe are non-Muslims.
Thousands of mourners on Monday (March 4) attended funeral prayers for seven victims, a day after a suspected suicide bomber attacked Shi'ite Muslims as they were leaving a mosque in Pakistan's commercial capital Karachi, killing at least 45 people.
Around 149 were wounded. Doctors said the death toll could rise because many of the wounded were in a critical condition.
The funeral prayers were offered at a Shi'ite mosque in the central district of Karachi.
The blast was seen as another signal that Sunni militants are escalating sectarian attacks.
Military offensives and U.S. drone strikes against the Taliban in Pakistan have reduced the number of suicide attacks on government and military targets over the past year.
But Sunni groups, most prominently the al Qaeda-linked Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), have escalated attacks against Shi'ites, who they believe are non-Muslims.