Suicide bomber killed in foiled attack in Pakistan

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan

A suicide bomber was killed, and another injured after security forces foiled an attempt to strike an Eid al-Adha congregation in southern Pakistan on Tuesday, police said.

Two bombers, according to police, tried to enter a Shia mosque where over 500 people had gathered for Eid prayers in the Shikarpur district in the Sindh province, 500 kilometers north of Karachi.

“The bombers were intercepted by the police deputed for the security [of the mosque] propelling one to detonate his explosive-laden vest, while his accomplice was successfully tackled by police and citizens before he could blow himself up,” A.D Khawaja, police chief of the Sindh province told reporters.

Three policemen were critically injured in the botched attack, he said.

This was the second attack on a Shia mosque in Shikarpur in less than two years.

In January 2015, an explosion at a Shia mosque in Shikarpur had killed 61 people and injured over 60 others. Jundullah, a splinter group of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, had claimed responsibility for the attack.

Pakistan, a Sunni-majority country, has a long history of sectarian violence as thousands of Shias and Sunnis have been killed in suicide bombings, blasts, and assassinations in the last three decades. Shias make up 10 percent of the total population of 180 million.