Suicide bomb kills 3, injures 14 in Rawalpindi
18 December, 2013
RAWALPINDI: Three people, including a sub-inspector, lost their lives while 12 others sustained injuries in a suicide bomb attack outside an Imam Bargah in Gracy Line area near airport here on Tuesday night, media reported quoting police sources.
According to our sources, policemen spotted a suspicious looking individual on a motorcycle in the parking lot of the Imambargah. The attacker blew himself up when the policemen tried to tackle him. As a result three people including a SHO lost their lives. The bodies were moved to Benazir Shaheed Hospital.
The blast also damaged several motorcycles and other vehicles parked at and around the blast site, police sources said.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif strongly condemned the attack that took place in a residential area of the garrison city.
Chief Minister Punjab, Shahbaz Sharif while condemning the incident ordered the concerned authorities to ensure provision of best medical facilities to the injured.
A security high alert was issued for the capital city of Islamabad following the brutal suicide attack in Rawalpindi.
Majlis-i-Wahadat-Muslameen (MWM), Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Fiqh-i-Jafaria condemned the attack and said that the government has failed to curb sectarian violence in the country.
There has been a rise in sectarian violence in Pakistan after several deadly clashes between Sunni and Shiite Muslim groups near Islamabad in November.
Allama Nasir Abbas a Shia cleric was killed late Sunday in Lahore, the capital of Punjab province, after addressing a religious gathering.
On November 19, gunmen killed a senior Shia university director along with his driver in Lahore, while another Shia leader and his guard were killed in Karachi in early December.
Three days later, Shams-ur-Rehman Muawiya, chief of the Sunni organisation Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jammat for Punjab province, was killed in Lahore.
Pakistan is rife with sectarian clashes, with Sunni militant groups linked to al Qaeda and the Taliban often attacking gatherings by Shia's, who constitute some 20 per cent of the country's population.
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