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Blast kills 6 mourners at Pakistani funeral

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-11-21 15:57

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan -- A blast killed at least six mourners Friday at the funeral of a Shiite cleric in northwest Pakistan who was gunned down hours earlier, police said.

Security escort vehicles escort supply trucks in the Khyber region November 17, 2008. A blast killed at least six mourners Friday at the funeral of a Shiite cleric in northwest Pakistan who was gunned down hours earlier, police said.[Agencies]

More than 20 others were wounded in the attack in the city of Dera Ismail Khan, said police officer Saadullah Marwat.

The motive for both attacks was unclear, but in the past members of Pakistan's majority Sunni Muslim community have attacked Shiites, who some consider to be heretical.

Northwest Pakistan is home to scores of al-Qaida and Taliban extremists. They are also Sunni, but mostly attack Pakistani police and military trying to root them out of the area.

The victims were attending the funeral of cleric Allama Nazir Shah Naqvi, who was shot and killed earlier Friday, said Marwat, adding it was not yet clear if the blast was from a hidden explosive device, a grenade or a suicide bomber.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan is undergoing a wave of Islamist violence that risks destabilizing the country as the West looks for its support in fighting al-Qaida and Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan.

Also in the border region, a suicide bomber late Thursday attacked a mosque where government-backed anti-militant tribesman were praying, killing eight, including the head of the group, officials said.

Seeking to curb soaring violence in Afghanistan, America has staged some 20 missile strikes on Pakistani territory since August, almost all of them aimed at the lawless tribal region along the Afghan border.

But for the first time Wednesday, the missiles targeted militants beyond the tribal areas, deeper inside Pakistan. Six suspected insurgents were killed.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry summoned US Ambassador Anne Patterson on Thursday to protest the strike, the second time she has been called in since August.

"It was underscored to the US ambassador that such attacks were a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty," a ministry statement said. The foreign secretary stressed the attacks must be stopped.

The US rarely confirms or denies involvement in strikes inside Pakistan, which are believed to be carried out mainly by unmanned CIA drones flown from Afghanistan.