Blast kills 19 Shiite pilgrims

Bombing in Pakistan hurts 25 others on way to Iran

Security forces gather Sunday at the site of a bombing in Quetta, Pakistan.
Security forces gather Sunday at the site of a bombing in Quetta, Pakistan.

— At least 19 Shiite pilgrims, including four women, were killed Sunday when their convoy of three buses in southwestern Pakistan was struck by a remotely detonated bomb, officials said. At least 25 other people were wounded in the attack in the Mastung District of Baluchistan province.

Earlier Sunday, government officials said they had discovered the bodies of 21 tribal police officers who were kidnapped by the Taliban last week in northwestern Pakistan.

The pilgrims were on their way to Shiite holy sites in neighboring Iran when the attack occurred. A vehicle filled with explosives was detonated as the pilgrims’ convoy passed by Sunday morning. The explosion destroyed one bus and damaged the other two.

There were conflicting reports about whether the attack on the Shiites was carried out by a suicide bomber or a car bomb detonated by remote control.

The wounded were taken to a hospital in the provincial capital, Quetta, officials said.

“Most of the dead bodies are completely burned,” said Maj. Nadir Ali, a retired army officer and a senior leader in the ethnic Hazara community.

Ali said the pilgrims had traveled from different cities and stayed in Quetta overnight before embarking on the 500-mile journey to Zahedan, Iran.

Tufail Ahmed, a local political figure, and a person who was riding in the second bus, Mohammed Ayan Danish, said the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber.

The bomber “rammed a small car into the first bus, which contained 43 pilgrims,” Danish said.

But Akbar Durrani, the home secretary in Baluchistan, said the explosion was caused by a car packed with explosives that was parked beside the road and detonated by remote control.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but Shiite Muslims have repeatedly been singled out by extremist Sunni militants belonging to the banned group Lashkare-Jhangvi, which has links to Pakistani Taliban militants in the tribal areas.

Pakistan’s Shiites have long complained that despite repeated assurances, the government has offered inadequate security and failed to protect them. In Baluchistan province, sectarian attacks have often been directed at the ethnic Hazaras, a Persian-speaking Shiite minority. More than 300 Shiites, many of them Hazaras, have been killed in Baluchistan since 2008, according to Human Rights Watch.

Ali, the Hazara leader, said the Mastung district was a particularly dangerous point on the trip to Iran because the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi had a strong presence there. In the fall of 2011, militants there dragged 26 Hazara men and boys from a bus headed to Iran and executed them.

“Security is not satisfactory,” Ali said.

In northwestern Pakistan, 21 police officers who had been captured by Taliban militants were found shot to death late Saturday night on the outskirts of Peshawar, government officials said Sunday.

The bodies were lined up in a field and had been shot at close range, the officials said. One officer was found wounded and was taken to a hospital.

The 23 officers, who belonged to a tribal police force, disappeared before dawn Thursday when militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons attacked two posts in Frontier Region Peshawar. Two policemen were killed in the attacks.

Government officials had asked local elders to help them negotiate the release of the police officers, but those efforts were unsuccessful.

A group affiliated with the Taliban that operates in the Darra Adam Khel region claimed responsibility for the abduction of the officers.

Pakistani analysts say independent groups of militants are battling the security forces, complicating an already difficult battle against terrorism and militancy.

Last week, Hakimullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, appeared in a video and laid down several conditions for negotiations with the government. While indicating that the Taliban were willing to talk, Mehsud said the militants would not put down their arms.

Also Sunday, two Pakistani army soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in the North Waziristan tribal area, the main sanctuary for Taliban and al-Qaida militants in the country, security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with official policy.

Information for this article was contributed by Salman Masood of The New York Times and by Abdul Sattar, Riaz Khan and Rasool Dawar of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 12/31/2012

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