By Salman Masood and Waqar Gillani, *Blast at Pakistan Shrine Kills Dozens* - The New York Times - New York, NY, USA; Sunday, April 3, 2011Islamabad: Two suicide bombers set off an explosion on Sunday evening at a Sufi shrine compound in Pakistan, killing at least 42 people, police officials said. More than 100 people, including women and children, were wounded.
The attack was aimed at a popular shrine of a Sufi saint, Sakhi Sarwar, in Dera Ghazi Khan, a remote district of Punjab Province, police officials said. An annual festival was in progress as hundreds of worshipers thronged the shrine compound when the attackers detonated their explosives.
Police officers said the attackers failed to get inside the shrine because of strict security measures.
With several of the wounded in critical condition, rescue officials said, the death toll was expected to rise.
A third attacker, who was wounded, was arrested after his explosives-laden jacket failed to fully detonate. The man appeared to be from the tribal regions close to the Afghan border, the police said.
The wounded were taken to a hospital. Emergency workers said they were facing difficulties in the rescue operation.
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or Movement of Taliban, an umbrella group of militants, claimed responsibility for the attack, Reuters reported.
Taliban militants have repeatedly aimed attacks at Sufi shrines across the country, along with government targets and security forces installations.
The attack on Sunday was seen as another attempt by militants to exacerbate the ideological divides that exist within different schools of Sunni Islam.
Deobandis are a puritanical branch of Sunni Islam to which most of the country’s militant groups belong. Followers of the Barelvi sect, on the other hand, believe in mysticism, revere saints and shrines, and are considered to be tolerant and accommodating of other faiths.
Though no accurate statistics are available, it is estimated that more than 75 percent of Pakistan’s population adheres to the Barelvi school of thought, which follows many Sufi practices. Punjab, the country’s most prosperous and populated province, has a Barelvi majority. Hard-line Deobandis consider Barelvis heretics.
Barelvi religious leaders have described the attacks as an attempt to sow sectarian strife.
“This is an act of terrorism by the Taliban,” said Sahibzada Muhammad Fazal Kareem, a member of Parliament and head of the Sunni Ittihad Council, an alliance of eight religious parties opposed to the Taliban.
“Taliban want to destroy the peace of the country, and attacks on shrines are a heinous conspiracy to spark sectarian tensions and riots,” Mr. Kareem said.
He criticized the government for failing to provide adequate security at shrines.
The shrine of Sakhi Sarwar, a 12th-century saint, is 25 miles from the district capital in the southern part of Punjab Province. Militants had been issuing threats against the shrine, police officials said.
Dera Ghazi Khan borders the northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province and Baluchistan Province and is known as the gateway to Punjab.
Recently, there have been concerns that militants from the tribal regions of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, formerly North-West Frontier Province, have been using Dera Ghazi Khan as a route to enter Punjab.
Concerns about rising militancy and extremism have also surfaced in recent years in southern Punjab, where feudal influence is still powerful and most of the population is impoverished and uneducated. The region also teems with madrasas, or religious seminaries.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani condemned the attack.
“Such cowardly acts of terror clearly demonstrate that the culprits involved neither have any faith nor any belief in human values,” a statement by the prime minister’s office said.
Salman Masood reported from Islamabad, and Waqar Gillani from Lahore, Pakistan.
Picture: Officers at a Sufi shrine in Dera Ghazi Khan removed explosives from a wounded man whom they called a suicide bomber. Photo: Sheikh Asif Raza/Reuters.
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