Update:
A suspected suicide bombing on minority Shi'ite Muslims in Pakistan killed at least 23 people, wounded dozens and triggered violence on an important holy day that killed at least four more, police said
The attack targeted a procession in the town of Hangu in North West Frontier Province to mark Ashura, the holiest day for Shi'ites. Officials reported several blasts.
A leader of the Shi'ite procession, Maulana Khurshid Anwar, said a bomb exploded near a stage where he was about to address Shi'ite mourners.
Enraged Shi'ites set shops and a bank on fire and fired shots into the air in the town 200 km (125 miles) west of Islamabad.
Unidentified gunmen opened fire on a bus outside Hangu later in the day, killing four passengers, including a woman, and injuring two, a paramilitary commander, Aziz Rehman, said.
NWFP police chief Riffat Pasha said the bombing was a suicide attack and troops were sent to help restore order. Security forces put up barricades on roads leading to Hangu after announcing an around-the-clock curfew in the town.
"We have sent armored personnel carriers there, and the Frontier Constabulary is also there," Pasha told Reuters. "The situation is pretty much under control."
Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said there had been three blasts and it could have been a suicide attack or caused by time bombs.
Adbul Majeed Marwat, a senior police officer in Hangu, said hospital sources had put the toll from the bombing at 22. Another senior police officer, who did not want to be named, said 23 had died.
"IT IS TERRORISM"
Pakistan has suffered Islamist sectarian violence for years, most of it directed by majority Sunni Muslims against Shi'ites.
Hangu Mayor Ghani-ur-Rehman said he did not believe this traditional rivalry was responsible. "I think it is not a Shi'ite-Sunni affair -- it is terrorism," he said, adding that there were also Sunnis in the procession, including himself.
"I don't believe Sunnis of Hangu would attack the Shi'ites."
Thousands have died in violence between Sunnis and Shi'ites since the 1980s.
Ashura marks the martyrdom of Imam Hussain, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammad. Tensions tend to rise during the month of Moharram, the 10-day period ending with Ashura.
During Moharram, Shi'ites stage big processions and beat themselves with sharpened chains to mourn the death of Hussain, the Prophet Mohammad's grandson, in a battle in
Iraq in 680 AD.
lovely
Ashura itself is violent. These folks are a long way from knowing what non-violence is.
Nah, it's just an average Islamofascist party!