Police say attacks on Pakistani minorities kill 23

[September 03, 2010]  QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) -- Police say suicide bombings targeting religious minorities have killed at least 23 people in Pakistan.

The attacks Friday are driving up the toll of sectarian assaults in a country already battered by massive flooding.

Quetta police chief Ghulam Shabir Sheikh says officers counted 22 bodies at hospitals after a blast at a Shiite procession calling for solidarity with Palestinians. Police say dozens are wounded and some are in critical condition.

Earlier Friday, a suicide attack on a mosque belonging to the minority Ahmadi sect killed at least one person and wounded several others in the northwest Pakistani town of Mardan.

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Khan reported from Peshawar. Associated Press Writer Vincent Thian contributed to this report from Gharo.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) -- Explosions killed at least 10 members of Pakistan's minority religious communities on Friday, driving up the toll of sectarian assaults in a country already battered by massive flooding.

A blast at a Shiite procession killed at least nine people in the southwestern city of Quetta at a rally calling for solidarity with Palestinians. Qazi Abdul Wahid, a senior police official, said at least 40 people were wounded.

Some Shiite youths fired shots in the air shortly after the blast, and Wahid said officers were trying to control the situation.

Earlier in the day, a suicide attack on a mosque belonging to the minority Ahmadi sect killed at least one person and wounded several others in the northwest Pakistani town of Mardan.

The attack in Quetta was the second this week on Pakistani Shiites, who by some estimates comprise about 20 percent of the population in the mostly Sunni Muslim country, although figures are imprecise and disputed.

A triple suicide attack Wednesday night killed 35 people at a Shiite ceremony in the eastern city of Lahore.

That attack, and a host of other assaults on religious minorities, was claimed by the hardline Sunni Pakistani Taliban, which is seeking to overthrow a Western-backed government shaken most recently by flooding that has caused massive displacement, suffering and economic damage.

Military and law-enforcement officials also have been battered by militant violence, particularly along the border with Afghanistan. Officials said a roadside bomb attack in the capital of the northwest's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province Friday killed one police officer and wounded three others.

The floods, spawned by heavy rains weeks ago in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and elsewhere in the mountains of northern Pakistan, have killed more than 1,600 people and affected about 20 million people. The waters are still swamping rich agricultural land in the southern provinces of Sindh and Punjab.

Flood victims say they have received little government help, and most assistance has come to them from private charities. The International Committee of the Red Cross warned Thursday that survivors' anger was beginning to hamper those aid efforts.

About 500 survivors blocked a key road in the Sindh town of Gharo on Friday to protest inadequate food and drinking water.

"We have blocked traffic today to draw government attention toward our problems. We are living at a government building without food," said Deedar Ahmad, 25, who said he fled with about 1,000 people from a nearby flooded village.

Survivor Ali Nawaz said the government had housed flood victims but was not providing food, electricity, water or adequate shelter.

"We cannot sleep because of the fears of snakes," he said.

The flooding, and anger over the government response, has raised fears about the stability of Pakistan's government, seen as a problematic but essential Western ally in the fight against Islamist militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan's own restive tribal areas.

The Pakistani Taliban has issued veiled threats against Western aid workers but a recent wave of attacks have focused instead on religious minorities, particularly Shiites and Ahmadis.

Police official Ahsanullah Khan said the bomber in Friday's attack on the Ahmadi mosque in the northwest town of Mardan appeared to have detonated himself after he was prevented from entering the building.

In May, two teams of seven militants armed with hand grenades, suicide vests and assault rifles attacked two Ahmadi mosques in Lahore, killing 97 and wounding dozens.

Many mainstream Muslims consider the Ahmadis heretics for believing that their founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, was a savior foretold by the Quran, Islam's holy book. They say Ahmadis are defying the basic tenet of Islam that says Muhammad is the final prophet.

Ahmadis argue that their leader was the savior rather than a prophet.

Under pressure from Islamists, Pakistan in the 1970s declared Ahmadis a non-Muslim minority. Pakistani Ahmadis -- who number between 3 million and 4 million -- are prohibited from calling themselves Muslims or engaging in practices such as reciting Islamic prayers.

[Associated Press; By ABDUL SATTAR and RIAZ KHAN]

Khan reported from Peshawar. Associated Press Writer Vincent Thian contributed to this report from Gharo.

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