Friday, May 27, 2005

Bomb kills 17 at Pakistan shrine

(CNN) -- A bomb blast at a Muslim shrine in Pakistan's capital Islamabad has killed at least 17 people and wounded many others, according to police.
An official at an Islamabad hospital said Friday at least 40 wounded had been treated.
Several hundred people were inside the Bare Iman shrine when the blast struck, police said.
Investigators said they had not determined what kind of bomb exploded.
"Some people say that it was planted under the stage and others says it was a suicide bombing," Islamabad Inspector General Talat Mahmood said.
Several hundred people were inside the Bare Iman shrine when the blast happened, police said.
Most of the dead were from the Shia sect, although Sunnis were also present at the time, police said.
Police officer Mohammed Sadique said the bomb exploded inside the shrine on the last day of a five-day festival, The Associated Press reported.
"It was like hell," said Syed Muktar Hussain Shah, 40, who had been waiting for a prominent Shiite leader, Hamid Moasvi, to address the gathering when the bomb went off.
"I fell down ... when I woke up I saw dead bodies around me," he told AP.
The shrine is about half a mile (0.8 kilometers) from the official residence of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
One worshipper who was hurt in the blast said he had seen a man dressed in a police uniform reciting the Quran inside the shrine -- believed to have been the bomber, AP said.
Police reportedly tried to stop the man but failed to prevent the attack.
CNN producer Syed Navqi in Lahore, Pakistan contributed to this report

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