Islam: Religion of Murder - Any excuse will do.

Violence mars Shiite procession in Pakistan
Reuters, The Associated PressPublished: January 30, 2007

PESHAWAR, Pakistan: A second attack targeting Shiite Muslims in as
many days hit Pakistan on Tuesday, as sectarian violence broke out
after rockets were fired at a religious procession, leaving two men
dead in a northwestern town, the police said.

Violence broke out after a rocket landed near police officers
protecting a procession to mark the holy festival of Ashura in Hangu,
about 60 miles, or 100 kilometers, south of Peshawar, said Ghani ur-
Rahman, the town's mayor.

The men who died were Sunni Muslims. At least 19 people were injured,
most of them police officers, Rahman said. It was not immediately
clear if the two deaths were caused by the rocket attack or the
ensuing violence.

"Curfew has been enforced in the city and there will be no more
processions today," said Fakkahar e-Alam, a senior administrator.

A senior police official, Muhammad Sharif, said the two people killed
were Afghan refugees.

On Monday, a suicide bomber killed a police officer protecting a
Shiite Muslim procession in northwestern Pakistan and rocket fire
injured 11 worshipers at a Shiite mosque.

Both attacks have stoked fears of sectarian bloodshed as Ashura, the
holiest day in the Shiite calendar and a commemoration of the death of
Imam Hussein in the 7th century, inched toward its climax.

There is concern that the Sunni- Shiite violence raging in Iraq is
feeding Pakistan's own sectarian conflict, which analysts say could
erode the stability of a country already struggling to contain Taliban
and Al Qaeda militants.

The suicide attacker struck in the city of Dera Ismail Khan, where the
police were frisking everyone entering an area where a Shiite
procession was scheduled to take place. The bomber refused to be
searched and detonated explosives hidden beneath his clothes, said
Sarfaraz Khan, a senior city police officer.

The interior minister, Aftab Khan Sherpao, said that one police
officer and one civilian were killed. Farid Mahsud, a doctor at the
city's main hospital, identified the civilian as a worker at a nearby
gas station.

The police gathered what were believed to be remains of the bomber,
including part of a bearded face. The procession was canceled.

A similar attack on Saturday near a Shiite mosque in another
northwestern city, Peshawar, killed 15 people and wounded more than
30, mostly police officers.

No claims of responsibility have been made for the attacks, but Sunni
Muslim extremists have repeatedly targeted Shiites during the Ashura
festival.

Earlier, two intelligence officials said that agents had picked up six
men in Dera Ismail Khan on suspicion of planning suicide attacks
during Ashura. The agents had found suicide belts in the raids, one of
the officials said. Both requested anonymity because of the sensitive
nature of their work.

In the rocket attack Monday, two projectiles landed near a mosque in
the city of Bannu as worshipers were arriving, the police said.

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