Blast targets Shia procession in southern Pakistan

by Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan

At least 22 people were killed and dozens of other people were injured in a suspected suicide blast at a Shia procession in southern Pakistan’s Sindh province Friday evening, police said.

According to Pakistani police, around 300 people, including women and children were participating in a Shia procession in the southern district of Jacobabad, when a suspected suicide bomber blew himself up.

Television footage from the area showed human remains and blood-soaked clothes strewn across the road and sidewalks.

Khuda Bux, a city police chief, said that preliminary reports suggest that children were among the dead.

This was the third suspected terrorist attack in less than a week in Pakistan. Ten people were killed in a suspected suicide attack in southwestern Balochistan province at a Shia mosque on Thursday, while 11 people were killed in a blast targeting a passenger bus in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, earlier this week.

Pakistan, a Sunni-majority country, has a long history of sectarian violence as thousands of Shias and Sunnis have been killed in suicide bombings, blasts, and assassinations in the last three decades. Shias make up 10 percent of the total 180 million population.