Bomb Kills 12 in Pakistan Mosque

A bomb tore through a Shia mosque in Pakistan killing 12 women and children on Thursday in the latest indication of a new upsurge in sectarian violence.

The bomb was planted in the women's section of a Shia mosque in Bhakkar, Punjab province, and exploded as thousands gathered for an annual religious ceremony. At least 25 people were injured.

The blast is the second major attack on a mosque in Pakistan in two months and comes after the individual murders of dozens of Shia lawyers and doctors in Karachi.

Such a sudden return to the bloody sectarian violence that has dogged Pakistan for years is a clear act of defiance against General Pervez Musharraf, the country's military ruler. In January, Gen Musharraf promised to curb Islamic militancy, and in particular to end the scourge of sectarian murders.

The latest bomb blast in Bhakkar, 300 miles south of Islamabad, left a wide crater, witnesses said. Nine of the dead were women and three were children, but some were so badly disfigured by the blast that their bodies were beyond recognition.

"This is religious terrorism," said Wizarat Naqvi, a local Shia leader.

Many complained that it took more than 30 minutes for the first ambulance to arrive. Several of the injured were taken to hospital on foot or in rickshaws. Worshippers at the mosque were marking the death in AD680 of the prophet Mohammad's grandson Hussain at Karbala.

Nearly all sectarian attacks against Shias in Pakistan have been the work of the feared Sunni militants Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (the Guardians of the Friends of the Prophet) or the group's armed wing, the even more violent Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Both have been banned by Gen Musharraf, along with their Shia equivalents.

Many suspect the rise in Sunni-sponsored sectarian attacks is linked to the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Sectarian militants were known to train in the same camps in Afghanistan as other Pakistani and al-Qaida fighters.