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Thursday, Nov 22, 2012 5:45 AM UTC

Suicide bomber kills 23 people in Pakistan

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Suicide bomber kills 23 people in PakistanPeople rush an injured man to an emergency ward of a local hospital in Karachi, Pakistan on Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2012. Two bombs exploded outside a Shiite mosque in the southern city of Karachi, killing scores of people and wounding others in a suicide attack, police official said. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)(Credit: AP)

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A suicide bomber struck a Shiite Muslim procession near Pakistan’s capital, killing 23 people in the latest of a series of bombings targeting Shiites during the holiest month of the year for the sect, officials said Thursday.

The bomber attacked the procession around midnight Wednesday in the city of Rawalpindi, located next to the capital, Islamabad, said Deeba Shahnaz, a state rescue official. At least 62 people were wounded by the blast, including six policemen. Eight of the dead and wounded were children, said Shahnaz.

Police tried to stop and search the bomber as he attempted to join the procession, but he ran past them and detonated his explosives, said senior police official Haseeb Shah. The attacker was also carrying grenades, some of which exploded, said Shah.

“I think the explosives combined with grenades caused the big loss,” said Shah.

Earlier Wednesday, two bombs went off within minutes outside a Shiite mosque in the southern city of Karachi, killing at least one person and wounding several others, senior police official Javed Odho said.

The bombings came as Shiites were observing the holy month of Muharram. On Saturday, Shiites will observe the holiest day of the month, Ashoura, which commemorates the seventh century death of Imam Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson.

Sunnis and Shiites have been at odds since the seventh century over the true heir to Muhammad.

Pakistan has a long history of sectarian violence carried out by both extremist Sunni and Shiite Muslims against the opposite sect. Most attacks in recent years have targeted Shiites, who make up a minority in the overwhelmingly Muslim country.

More Asif Shahzad.

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