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Imambargah blast kills 32 in DG Khan

* Suspected suicide attack targeted participants of religious gathering * President, PM slam bombing
* Punjab CM announces compensation

MULTAN/LAHORE: Up to 32 people were killed when a suspected suicide bombing ripped through a crowd of Shia worshippers outside a DG Khan mosque on Thursday.

Police said the blast targeted dozens of people converging on the Al Hussainia Mosque after dark, shortly before a religious gathering.

Although there was no immediate claim of responsibility, police were swift to blame sectarian extremists following a wave of violence in the country.

“Ninety-nine percent it looks like a suicide attack,” Shaukat Javed, the inspector general of Punjab Police, told AFP. “The explosion occurred just 50 feet short of the mosque. It is a terrorist attack aimed at Shias to create unrest,” he added. “It seems like a suicide blast,” Javed told a TV channel. “If something is planted or hurled, it leaves a crater. There is no crater at the site of the incident.”

“According to eyewitnesses, nothing was thrown from outside,” district government official Jawed Mehmood Bhatti told Reuters. “It looks as if someone was standing at the site of the blast and waiting for the procession and he blew himself up as the procession came close to him,” he added.

About 200 people had arrived to attend the religious gathering. District health official Dr Fazal Karim confirmed that 13 bodies were brought to the local hospital including those of two children and a woman, but said he did not know how many dead may have been counted elsewhere.

Medics said six people with serious injuries were rushed for specialist treatment in Multan, the closest sizeable town.

But of 48 people hurt in the blast, most were discharged after first aid, the officials said.

The powerful blast caused serious damage to the mosque and another nearby Shia building, local police official Mohammed Ahsan told AFP.

Rescue workers were seen trying to clear a crowd out of the way to let ambulances pass in darkness, in footage broadcast by television channels.

“The initial report is that it was a suicide bomber. He exploded himself in the crowd. Body parts have been found and sent to the hospital,” district police chief Athar Mubarik told reporters. “The attacker was wearing a jacket carrying 12 to 14 kilogrammes of explosives,” he added. Angered protesters took to the streets in Karachi after the news of the blast, a channel reported, burning tyres and blocking roads.

“They hurled stones on the passing and standing vehicles,” it reported. “Some young men staged a sit-in on the MA Jinnah Road.” A Shia group announced a three-day mourning, the channel reported.

President Asif Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the bombing. “In separate messages, they deplored the loss of innocent lives and directed the health authorities to provide best medical care to the injured,” the state-run APP news agency said late on Thursday. “They also directed the authorities concerned to initiate an immediate inquiry into this tragic incident and bring the culprits to justice.”

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif announced Rs 500,000 each for the heirs of dead and Rs 75,000 each for the injured, and ordered doctors, paramedical staff and medicines be sent to Dera Ghazi Khan immediately. Information Minister Sherry Rehman, Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer, Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, former Punjab chief minister Pervaiz Elahi and his son Moonis Elahi also condemned the attack. agencies/staff report/daily times monitor

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