Suicide bombers kills 24 outside mosque

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By Associated Press
Thursday, February 5, 2009 -

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A suicide bomber blew himself up among worshipers streaming toward a Shiite Muslim mosque in central Pakistan, killing 24 people and wounding dozens more.

Yesterday’s attack in the city of Dera Ghazi Khan risks sparking sectarian fury in a country already battling rising militancy along the Afghan border and tension with India over the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

The bomb detonated as a crowd approached the mosque for evening prayers. TV footage showed bystanders and emergency workers trying frantically to help victims lying in the street. Police Chief Athar Mubarak said the bomb, packed with ball bearings and nails, wounded 40 others.

“Evidence collected from the spot indicates that a suicide bomber blew himself up in the crowd,” Mubarak said. Relations between this Muslim nation’s strong Sunni majority and Shiite minority have already been tested by a series of attacks. Much of the violence has been in Pakistan’s northwest, where the Taliban and other violent Sunni groups have gained ground.