Six people were killed when a KFC restaurant was set on fire by a mob angry about a suicide attack on a Shi’ite mosque in Karachi, bringing the overall death toll to 11, police said on Tuesday.
The fast-food chicken restaurant was targeted in overnight rioting after Monday’s attack on the Madinatul Ilm Imambargah mosque, where three assailants clashed with police before exploding a bomb in violence that killed two attackers, two police officers and one worshipper, and wounded 26.
Four of the victims at the restaurant were burned to death while the two others died after taking refuge in a refrigeration unit, senior police official Manzoor Mughal said. The six bodies were recovered on Tuesday, bringing the overall death toll in the southern port city of Karachi to 11, he said.
Sunni Muslim extremists were suspected in the mosque attack, and it was unclear why KFC was targeted in retaliatory rioting, along with arson attacks on vehicles, shops, three bank branches and three gas stations.
However, the restaurant is heavily associated with the United States and rioters in Pakistan typically attack symbols of Washington while on a rampage. Anti-US feeling grew in Pakistan after President General Pervez Musharraf allied the country with Washington in the war on terror after September 11 2001.
Rauf Siddiqi, home minister of Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital, condemned the mosque bombing and said security has been put on ”high alert”.
The three attackers stole an automatic weapon from a police guard outside the mosque before shooting him dead. Other police officers deployed there opened fire, killing one of the attackers and wounding another, and an officer also was killed.
On Tuesday, the third attacker, who was being treated at a hospital, told police that his name was Mohammed Jamil and that he was from outlawed Jaish-e-Mohammed militant group, according to a police official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Jaish-e-Mohammed is accused of orchestrating several attacks against minority Christians, Shi’ites and government officials. The group is mainly fighting Indian forces in India’s part of Kashmir, but its supporters are also known for their links with al-Qaeda.
The third attacker managed to get inside the mosque and detonated a bomb strapped to his body, killing himself and one worshipper and wounding 26 other people, Mughal said.
”It appeared to be a low-intensity bomb because it did not cause major damage,” said Mushtaq Shah, chief of police operations in Karachi.
The attack came three days after a suspected suicide bomber attacked a Shi’ite religious gathering during a festival at a shrine near Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, killing about 20 people and injuring dozens.
”These incidents are happening one after the other. We are trying to find a link between them,” he told the private Geo television station. ”This is a criminal and merciless attack.”
Pakistan has a history of sectarian violence, mostly blamed on rival majority Sunni and minority Shiite extremist groups. About 80% of Pakistan’s 150-million people are Sunnis and 17% Shi’ites.
Most of the Muslims live together peacefully, but small groups of militants on both sides stage attacks. The schism between Sunnis and Shi’ites dates to the seventh century over who was the true heir to the Prophet Mohammed. — Sapa-AP