Thousands of people have gathered in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, for a mass funeral after 25 people were killed and more than 150 were wounded in bomb attacks on Friday.
A second blast went off outside a hospital entrance where the wounded were being taken, reportedly killing another 13 people, witnesses said.
A third bomb was defused in the hospital car park, police said.
Major Aurang Zeb, a paramilitary spokesman in Karachi, said on Saturday that security forces were on maximum alert ahead of the funeral in the Malir area of the southern port city.
“It looks like there’s no government in Pakistan,” Syed Shabbir Hussain, who lost a cousin in the first blast, said.
“They always say that there are militants here, and that they will attack. And then they attack, but the police and the government do nothing.”
Shia Muslims in Pakistan are marking Arbaeen – the end of a 40-day mourning period for Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad who was killed in a seventh century battle in Karbala.
City shut down
Most of shops in Karachi, a city of 18 million people, were closed and public transport reduced as several thousand mourners gathered at funerals of some of the victims of the attacks.
Hasan Abdullah, a correspondent with Pakistan’s Dawn News television, told Al Jazeera: “The police say that a bomb was planted on the first and second bus and they were detonated remotely.”
Initial investigations had suspected a bomb-laden motorcycle was driven into one of the buses.
“As far as the general strike is concerned, all the markets have been closed down and also the city government’s schools have been closed,” Abdullah said.
“At least 20 suspects have been rounded up, and police say these suspects belong to banned sectarian organisations.”
Raja Umer Khattab, a senior police investigator, said the Jundullah [Army of God] group was behind the attacks.
“This is the same group that carried out the Ashura attack,” he said, referring to a bomb attack at a Shia procession in late December that killed 43 people.
Strategic city
Kamal Hyder, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Islamabad, said: “Right now the people of Karachi are in mourning. Once they have buired their dead, there will be more anger that the security have not been able to protect them.
“Karachi has seen violence in the past. It would appear that whoever is conducting these acts of terror in Karachi wants to destabilise Karachi,” he said.
“There has been a lot of talk that Karachi is a strategic city, it is a port city, but whoever wants to hit Karachi primarily wants to do so because it is the financial heart of the country.
The Pakistani Taliban have claimed past attacks against Shia Muslims in Pakistan.
Two attacks in Karachi last December claimed by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan left at least 60 people dead and unleashed a wave of angeron the city’s streets.
Pakistan had tightened security in the city to protect mass processions of worshippers during Ashoura, deploying tens of thousands of police and paramilitary forces.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
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