Explosion Kills 25 Outside Courthouse One Militant Muslim On Trial For Murder Dies, Other Wounded

A powerful bomb exploded Saturday outside a courthouse where leaders of a militant Sunni Muslim group were on trial. Police and journalists were among the 25 people killed and dozens wounded.

No one claimed responsibility for the bombing in this eastern Pakistani city. Police and supporters of the Sunni group Guardians of the Friends of the Prophet blamed rival Shiite Muslims.

Fearing retaliatory attacks against Pakistan’s minority Shiites, police stepped up security at Shiite mosques around the country.

Sunni leaders Zia-ur Rehman and Azim Tariq, arriving at the Lahore Sessions Court for their trial on murder charges, had stepped out of a police van and were being showered with rose petals by supporters when the bomb went off, witnesses said.

The device, made from at least 11 pounds of explosives, was planted in a motorcycle and set off by remote control, bomb experts said.

The blast scattered the twisted and charred remains of vehicles across the parking lot and blew out the windows of a nearby building. Panicked residents ran for cover.

“There was smoke everywhere and everywhere there was blood and bodies,” ambulance driver Fayaz Ahmed said.

Rehman was killed and Tariq, a candidate in next month’s parliamentary elections, was seriously wounded. Their followers threatened retaliation.

The blast killed and wounded policemen who were waiting to testify and who were guarding Tariq and Rehman. A newspaper photographer and reporter also were among the dead. Six other photographers were wounded.

Police and passers-by pulled victims from the scene and rushed them in cars and rickshaws to the hospital. More than 100 were wounded.

Sunni mosque leaders in Lahore condemned the bombing and students held demonstrations.

Lahore police said security had been tightened, but some worshipers found protection of their own. Boys wielding automatic rifles patrolled at some mosques.

“We are deeply scared,” said Zahid Bokhari, a Shiite cleric at Qasar Zenab mosque in Lahore. “We are afraid that there will be revenge killings.”

Government officials in Lahore, capital of Punjab province, appealed for calm. Gov. Tariq Rahim called the bombing a “cowardly act … that would be crushed with a firm hand.”

In Jhang, 120 miles to the southwest, Sunni militants set tires on fire, shot their guns into the air and vowed revenge. The city’s large Shiite population stayed indoors.

Police cordoned off Shiite mosques in Peshawar, in the troubled Northwest Frontier Province. Last year, Shiite-Sunni clashes in the province killed 200 people before the army was called in to restore calm.

Most of Pakistan’s 130 million people are Sunni Muslims, who generally live in peace with Shiites. But there has been a proliferation of militant groups and they have become increasingly violent.

The rivalry between Sunni and Shiite Muslims dates back to the origins of Islam, when the two groups argued over the rightful successor of Islam’s prophet, Mohammed.