SUICIDE BLASTS,CLASHES IN PAKISTAN.MANY KILLED

USTARZAI, Pakistan - A suicide bombing ripped through a Shiite procession Thursday in northwestern Pakistan, sparking riots during the Muslim sect's most important holiday. At least 22 people were killed and dozens injured, officials said.

The bomb targeted hundreds of people in a bazaar soon after they emerged from the main Shiite mosque in the town of Hangu, district police chief Ayub Khan said.

The Shiites responded by burning shops and cars while clashing with police in the town, located about 125 miles southwest of the capital, Islamabad, Khan said. Army troops moved in to restore order and a curfew was imposed, he said.

Ghani ur-Rehman, the top district administrator, said 22 people were reported killed and more than 50 wounded. He said more than 60 percent of the town bazaar had burned in the violence that following the bombing.

A security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media, said some of the fatalities came during gun fights between battling factions in the town after the attack.

Akram Durrani, the top elected official in the province, said a preliminary investigation showed the bomb was a suicide attack. He immediately announced a judicial inquiry into the incident.

The attack took place at the height of the Ashoura holiday, which marks the 7th century death of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. Hussein's death led to a rivalry between Shiites and Sunnis over who should succeed the prophet.

Security was tight for the holiday because it has been marred by violence in recent years. Sunni Muslims — the majority in Pakistan — have been blamed for attacking Shiites during the event, which involves religious processions across the country.

After the attack Thursday, police mounted road blocks on the road to Hangu. An Associated Press reporter was barred from passing beyond Ustarzai, a town about 15 miles from the scene. Police even blocked three ambulances.

Mir Faisal, a local government chief in Hangu, said smoke was hanging over the town because of fires in the bazaar and he could hear gunfire. He said army and paramilitary troops had arrived but it was still too dangerous for any officials to go outside.

Hangu Mayor Ghani Ur-Rahman, however, said the situation was under control by early afternoon. He said Sunni and Shiite leaders were helping to calm the situation.

Clerics from both sects used mosque loudspeakers to urge their followers to avoid further violence, which many feared could spread to other processions across Pakistan.

A prominent Shiite cleric, Allama Mehdi Najfi, in the southwestern city of Quetta told the AP: "This attack has spread anger among our people throughout the country, but I appeal them not to clash with any member of other sects."

"This is a conspiracy to trigger clashes between Sunnis and Shiites. No Muslim can do this thing. Whoever has done this thing is a terrorist," he said.

Top officials of the North West Frontier Province held an emergency meeting in the northwestern city of Peshawar to discuss how to control the situation, a provincial official said on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to disclose it.

Durrani announced the government would pay more than $1,500 to the families of each of the dead.

Last March, 46 pilgrims died in the bombing of a Shiite shrine in the southwestern town of Fatehpur. In March 2004, Sunni militants launched a suicide attack on an Ashoura procession of Shiites in the regional capital of Quetta, killing 44 people.

Update:
A suspected suicide bombing on minority Shi'ite Muslims in Pakistan killed at least 23 people, wounded dozens and triggered violence on an important holy day that killed at least four more, police said
The attack targeted a procession in the town of Hangu in North West Frontier Province to mark Ashura, the holiest day for Shi'ites. Officials reported several blasts.
A leader of the Shi'ite procession, Maulana Khurshid Anwar, said a bomb exploded near a stage where he was about to address Shi'ite mourners.
Enraged Shi'ites set shops and a bank on fire and fired shots into the air in the town 200 km (125 miles) west of Islamabad.
Unidentified gunmen opened fire on a bus outside Hangu later in the day, killing four passengers, including a woman, and injuring two, a paramilitary commander, Aziz Rehman, said.
NWFP police chief Riffat Pasha said the bombing was a suicide attack and troops were sent to help restore order. Security forces put up barricades on roads leading to Hangu after announcing an around-the-clock curfew in the town.
"We have sent armored personnel carriers there, and the Frontier Constabulary is also there," Pasha told Reuters. "The situation is pretty much under control."
Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said there had been three blasts and it could have been a suicide attack or caused by time bombs.
Adbul Majeed Marwat, a senior police officer in Hangu, said hospital sources had put the toll from the bombing at 22. Another senior police officer, who did not want to be named, said 23 had died.

"IT IS TERRORISM"

Pakistan has suffered Islamist sectarian violence for years, most of it directed by majority Sunni Muslims against Shi'ites.

Hangu Mayor Ghani-ur-Rehman said he did not believe this traditional rivalry was responsible. "I think it is not a Shi'ite-Sunni affair -- it is terrorism," he said, adding that there were also Sunnis in the procession, including himself.

"I don't believe Sunnis of Hangu would attack the Shi'ites."

Thousands have died in violence between Sunnis and Shi'ites since the 1980s.
Ashura marks the martyrdom of Imam Hussain, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammad. Tensions tend to rise during the month of Moharram, the 10-day period ending with Ashura.
During Moharram, Shi'ites stage big processions and beat themselves with sharpened chains to mourn the death of Hussain, the Prophet Mohammad's grandson, in a battle in
Iraq in 680 AD.

Shia-Sunni violence in Hangu at Ashura time is pretty much the rule. This article is from 2001 and also covers violence there in 1998. Religion of Peace I suppose;

Published on: Thursday, 5 Zill Hujja 1421 (1 March 2001)

8 Shias killed, 5 injured in Hangu by Wahabis
[img]216[/img][imgnote]Federal Administrated Tribal areas is heavily armed area with Klashinkov's to Skud misiles. This area imposes its own Tribal laws, and both Afghanistan & Pakistan governments administer them only through some appointed governors
Hangu, Pakistan

By Jaffar Abbas and Aliraza

Eight Shia Muslims have been gunned down and five injured in Hangu, as a Wahabi terrorist opened fire in a market Thursday.

The assailants emerged from a van and sprayed bullets at a crowded market before escaping.

Rampaging crowds of Shias and Wahabis torched shops and vehicles and exchanged gunfire. At least six shops and several vehicles were set on fire, police said.

"The situation is still tense and the authorities have rushed para military troops to quell the rioting," senior home ministry official Manzur Ahmed said.

A press note by the NWFP government said that civil armed forces, including the Frontier Corps and Frontier Constabulary militia, had been called out to assist the administration in Hangu.

The violence erupted after a Wahabi terrorist belonging to Tehreek-e-Taaliban (Wahabi organisation suporting Sipah-e-Sahaba) had shot dead three Shia shopkeepers and injuring another in the main bazaar of Hangu.

An indefinite curfew was imposed on Hangu town and the law enforcement agencies were given shoot-at-sight orders for any one found violating the curfew.

A doctor at Hangu's district headquarters hospital confirmed eight deaths and injuries to five persons till 6pm.

But unofficial reports said eleven persons were killed and 13 injured in the violence. Eight bodies were reportedly brought to the Civil Hospital, Hangu and another three to the private Madina Medical Centre on Thall Road in the outskirts of the town.

Out of the four Shias hit in the market, two died on the spot and another succumbed to injuries at the DHQ hospital.

Among the dead were seven local men and one visitor from the North Waziristan Agency in FATA. Hospital sources identified some of the dead as Syed Jawad Hussain, Nisar Ali, Haji Minhaj Ali, and Subedar Lalmai. Bodies were kept at the DHQ hospital.

The man belonging to Mir Ali in the North Waziristan Agency, who was hit by a rocket, was identified as Bakhtawar Khan.

The injured included Shah Turab and Naseer Khan from Hangu, Haji Zakeem Khan from Mir Ali (NWA), Haji Aziz from Lakki Marwat and Zulmat Shah from Teerah in the Khyber Agency.

The immediate cause of the flare-up appears to be the execution of SSP terrorist Haq Nawaz in the Mianwali jail on February 28 for the murder of Iranian diplomat Sadiq Ganji. It enraged the SSP workers and caused tension in Hangu and the adjacent Orakzai tribal agency.

A sectarian dispute over a shrine in Orakzai agency in the first week of January 2000 caused at least nine deaths. This issue is still unresolved and a cause of much concern to both the sects.

In March 1998, sectarian violence had claimed over 30 lives in Hangu.

Elders of the Shia blamed the government for not taking adequate security measures in Hangu despite being aware that Nawaz's hanging could fuel sectarian clashes.

The Imamia Council spokesman Malik Nawab Khan, advocate, said that special preventive measures should have been initiated in Hangu as it was prone to sectarian violence.

Shia leaders in Hangu and Peshawar accused the administration of failing to take action. They demanded arrest of the killers of the Shia Muslims in Hangu.

Dear Sunni Terrorists and Islamofascists of Pakistan,

You are a:
[ ] Individual
[x] Group of Individuals / Movement
[ ] Party
[ ] Bureaucracy
[x] Ideology

Who is generally known as being one or more of the following politically:

[ ] Reasonably intelligent person who should know better
[ ] Libertarian
[x] Leftist
[ ] Socialist
[ ] Marxist
[ ] Elitist
[ ] Communist
[x] Islamofascist
[ ] Part of the PC police
[x] Nihilist
[x] Insane
[x] Idiotic

You have (wrongly) decided that your fellow countrymen should be the next victims of your terrorist attacks.

You Personally advocate a plan involving:
[x] Propaganda
[ ] Big Government Bureaucracy
[ ] Big Government Legislative
[ ] Market Reform
[x] Vigilante actions
[ ] Quitting
[ ] Doing nothing
[ ] Caving in to pressure

Your plan will not work. Here is why it won't work. (One or more of the following may apply to your particular idea, and it may have other flaws which used to vary from state to state before a bad Federal law was passed.)

[ ] They will be 'offended' anyway
[x] It is unnecessary
[x] It is hypocritical
[ ] It is impossible to implement
[ ] It will take an unrealistic amount of effort to implement
[ ] It will take an unrealistic amount of time to implement
[ ] It will take an unrealistic amount of resources to implement
[x] It ignores reality, natural law, human nature, the laws of nature, or religion
[x] It is out of touch with reality
[x] It is sacrilegious
[ ] It is already in place
[ ] It is already in place, and failing
[x] It has been tried before, and either failed, or been shown to be ineffective
[ ] It is an unrealistic plan that will never be tried
[ ] It is an unrealistic plan that, if tried, would not achieve the desired effects
[x] It will needlessly undermine personal liberty
[x] It will needlessly undermine economic liberty
[x] As Hayek showed in 'Road to Serfdom', loses in economic liberty automatically lead to loses in personal liberty
[x] It will set you on the road to an authoritarian dictatorship
[x] The people responsible for your problem will use this plan to their advantage
[x] Ordinary citizens would be / are needlessly affected by your plan
[ ] No one will be able to find those responsible, or collect the money
[ ] It is defenseless against brute force attacks
[ ] Your plan will stop the problem for two weeks and then we'll be stuck with it
[x] Americans will not put up with it
[x] America will not put up with it
[x] The civilized world will not put up with it
[x] Your own citizens / supporters will not put up with it
[x] Businesses will not put up with it
[x] The police will not put up with it
[ ] Requires too much cooperation from those responsible
[ ] Requires immediate total cooperation from everybody at once
[ ] Most people don't agree that this is a problem
[x] It will alienate more people (beyond your supporters) than it will convert
[x] It will end up alienating even your own supporters
[x] It lacks the support of many of those it is aimed to 'help'
[x] You have been brainwashed
[x] Your supporters have been brainwashed
[ ] Those responsible don't care about inconveniences caused by your plan
[ ] Those responsible will work around your plan
[ ] Those responsible will continue to do what they do regardless
[ ] Anyone could anonymously destroy anyone else's career or business via your solution
[x] Laws (incl. the Bill of Rights and Constitution) expressly prohibiting it
[ ] Lack of centrally controlling authority for the world
[ ] The world economy
[ ] Technological difficulties
[ ] Stupidity of some in society
[ ] Jurisdictional problems
[ ] Unpopularity of weird new taxes
[x] Public reluctance to accept weird new forms of money or power
[ ] Huge existing investment in existing infrastructure
[x] Susceptibility of your solution to other problems down the track
[x] Public not willing to undertake dangerous acts, sign away rights or significant inconvenience required to make your plan work
[ ] The problem is already far too entrenched
[ ] Ongoing innovation (for either good or evil)
[ ] Extreme profitability of activities you are trying to ban
[ ] The possibility of identity theft
[ ] Technically illiterate or incompetent politicians and bureaucrats
[ ] Corrupt or nepotist politicians and bureaucrats
[x] Dishonesty on the part of you (or your supporters)
[ ] Dishonesty on the part of those responsible
[ ] Dishonesty on the part of government
[ ] Dishonesty on the part of citizens
[ ] It is premised on a flawed or revisionist history
[ ] It is premised on a flawed economic theory
[ ] It is premised on pseudoscience
[x] It is premised on very controversial theory or theories
[ ] Costs that are incurred regardless
[x] Distortion of the market

and the following philosophical objections may also apply:

[x] Ideas similar to yours are easy to come up with, yet none have ever been shown practical
[x] Any plan forced on the public is unacceptable
[ ] It covers areas which should not be the subject of legislation
[ ] Blacklists suck
[ ] Whitelists suck
[ ] We don't want our essential Rights abridged
[x] We aren't willing to live in a (Islamo)-Fascist or Socialist state to solve your problem or implement your plan
[ ] Countermeasures should be as ethical as possible
[ ] Countermeasures should not involve wire fraud or credit card fraud
[ ] Countermeasures should not involve sabotage of essential infrastructure
[x] Countermeasures should not involve mass murder
[ ] Countermeasures should not involve quitting
[x] Why should we have to trust you with power?
[x] Incompatibility with Western culture
[ ] Feel-good measures do nothing to solve the problem
[ ] Your solution is cumbersome
[ ] I don't want the government reading my email
[ ] Killing them that way is not slow and painful enough

There will be a backlash against your plan because most ordinary people, including many people who do not actively identify themselves as Conservatives or Libertarians, do not agree with you. Instead, many believe in / that (tick the boxes that specifically apply):
[x] Traditional values
[ ] Family values
[ ] Freedom (including from Government)
[ ] Significant risk requires significant rewards
[x] Religious morals
[x] Social codes, ethics, and customs
[x] An honest days work should be rewarded with an honest days pay, not a large Tax bill
[x] Free markets build wealth

You are out of touch with these beliefs.

Your plan may also restrict the following essential rights and freedoms:
[x] Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
[ ] A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.
[ ] No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
[x] The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
[x] No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
[x] In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.
[ ] In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
[ ] Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
[ ] The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
[x] The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
Furthermore, this is what I think about you:

[ ] Sorry dude, but I don't think it would work.
[ ] This is a stupid idea, and you're a fascist for suggesting it.
[x] Nice try, Terrorists! We're going to find out where you live and burn your house down!

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