http://www.reuters.com/locales/newsArticle.jsp;:40459109:5e152efe605cacc6?type=worldNews&locale=fr_CA&storyID=4480820

02 Mar 2004 18:35  

Au moins 44 chiites tués dans un attentat au Pakistan

par Rizwan Saeed

QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Quarante-quatre personnes au moins ont été tuées et 150 autres blessées mardi dans une attaque à l'arme automatique et à la grenade contre une procession de la minorité chiite à Quetta, dans le sud-ouest du Pakistan.

Cette attaque a coïncidé avec une série d'attentats à la bombe qui ont fait 143 morts en Irak dans le sanctuaire chiite de Kerbala et à Bagdad.

Vingt cinq corps ont été transportés à l'hôpital militaire de Quetta où 115 blessés, dont 20 se trouvent dans un état grave, ont été admis, a précisé un médecin.

L'un de ses collègues à l'hôpital civil a recensé 19 corps, dont ceux de deux assaillants, et 41 blessés. Sept sont grièvement touchés et parmi eux se trouve l'un des auteurs présumés de l'attaque.

"La plupart ont été victimes de tirs, d'explosions ou de des bousculades", a ajouté le médecin.

L'opération visait la procession organisée dans le centre de Quetta à l'occasion du deuil de l'Achoura, qui commémore la mort de l'imam Hussein, petit-fils de Mahomet, lors d'une bataille au VIIe siècle.

"Les terroristes ont commencé à tirer depuis un balcon sur les gens qui participaient à la procession", et un membre de la communauté hazara a riposté, a expliqué à Reuters l'officier de police Riaz Khan. Un autre agent a fait état de jets de grenades.

LES CHIITES LAISSENT ECLATER LEUR COLERE

"Lorsque les terroristes ont été encerclés, au moins deux d'entre eux se sont fait exploser", a poursuivi Khan. "J'ai vu leurs corps projetés du balcon au-dessus des fils électriques."

Leurs armes, ont assuré des témoins, étaient frappées du nom du mouvement sunnite interdit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, responsable de nombreux attentats religieux.

"Nous supposons qu'il s'agit d'un acte à mettre sur le compte des suspects habituels, tels que le Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, mais on ignore quel était leur objectif", a déclaré à Reuters le dirigeant chiite Abdul Jalil Naqvi.

Après l'attaque, la colère de la minorité chiite a tourné à l'émeute et une centaine de boutiques ont été incendiées. L'armée est intervenue pour tenter de restaurer l'ordre et imposer un couvre feu, tandis qu'une immense colonne de fumée s'élevait du marché principal.

Le dirigeant d'un mouvement chiite interdit a par ailleurs été tué et 30 personnes ont été blessées dans des affrontements intereligieux qui ont éclaté à Mandi Bahauddin, 600 km au nord-est de Quetta, a fait savoir un responsable chiite.

Des heurts ayant déjà opposé les chiites à la majorité sunnite durant la période de deuil de Mouharram, les mesures de sécurité avaient été renforcées dans l'ensemble du Pakistan en prévision des processions de mardi.

Samedi, un kamikaze s'était fait sauter dans une mosquée chiite de la ville pakistanaise de Rawalpindi en blessant légèrement trois personnes, selon des responsables et des témoins. En juillet dernier, un attentat suicide contre une mosquée chiite de Quetta avait fait plus de 57 morts.

http://www2.sympatico.ca/nouvelles/monde/M030216AU.html

Au moins 41 morts dans l'attaque contre une procession chiite au Pakistan

à 12h52, le 2 mars 2004.

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) - Après l'Irak, le Pakistan. Des hommes armés ont ouvert le feu mardi sur des fidèles chiites au cours d'une procession religieuse dans une ville du sud-ouest du Pakistan, tuant au moins 41 personnes, dont deux des kamikazes, et en blessant plus de 150 autres.

Le maire de Quetta, principale ville du Baloutchistan, a décrété un couvre-feu immédiat. Selon l'édile, Abdul Rahim Kakar, les trois agresseurs ont commencé à tirer et lancer des grenades avant de se jeter dans la foule, des ceintures d'explosifs, et de se faire sauter. Deux des assaillants sont morts, le troisième est dans un état critique.

L'attaque, dans un quartier populeux de la ville, s'est déroulée pendant la procession rassemblant des centaines de chiites célébrant l'Achoura, la fête principale du calendrier chiite, cérémonie commémorant la mort de Hussein, petit-fils de Mahomet et fils d'Ali, à la bataille de Kerbala au VIIème siècle, en cette journée de mardi qui est le temps fort du mois sacré de Muharram, consacré au deuil.

Peu après, une mosquée sunnite et des bureaux d'un réseau de télévision ont été incendiés au cours d'émeutes de chiites et un échange de tirs a eu lieu près du lieu de la première attaque. La fusillade s'est poursuivie dans les rues de Quetta plusieurs heures après l'attaque.

Vivement condamnée par les autorités, qui estiment que cette attaque vise à créer le chaos dans le pays, cette agression s'est déroulée le même jour et quelques heures après une série coordonnée d'attentats visant les chiites en Irak.

Quetta avait déjà été le théâtre d'une des plus meurtrières attaques intercommunautaires au Pakistan: en juillet, 50 chiites avaient été massacrés dans une mosquée par un commando lourdement armé.

Selon la police, le principal suspect de cette attaque de juillet était le beau-frère de Ramzi Youssef, membre d'Al-Qaïda, condamné pour le premier attentat contre le World Trade Center à New York, en 1993.

Par ailleurs, à Phalia, au Pendjab, à environ 160km à l'est d'Islamabad, deux personnes, un chiite et un sunnite, ont été tuées et 40 autres blessées lors d'un affrontement entre les deux communautés religieuses, également en pleine procession chiite, a annoncé la police locale.

Published Wednesday, March 3, 2004

Pakistan Announces Inquiry Into Attack

Pakistan army soldiers arrive at the scene of an attack on a procession of Shiite Muslim worshippers, Tuesday, March 2, 2004, in Quetta , Pakistan . Armed men opened fire on Shiite Muslim worshippers during a religious procession in southwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, killing at least 29 people and wounding more than 150, authorities said. The city's mayor declared a curfew. (AP Photo/Arshad Butt) 

By MOHAMMED ARSHAD

Associated Press Writer

QUETTA , Pakistan Pakistan 's government on Wednesday announced a judicial inquiry into a suicide attack on Shiite Muslim worshippers that triggered sectarian clashes, leaving at least 43 people dead and causing carnage in this southwestern city.

Troops patrolled the deserted, riot-hit streets of Quetta , a day after three armed men sprayed gunfire and lobbed grenades at a religious procession, before blowing themselves up. More than 160 other people were wounded.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, a key U.S.-ally in the war on terrorism - who himself faced two assassination attempts by suspected Islamic militants in December - vowed to see the culprits arrested, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told reporters.

Musharraf also resolved to rid Pakistan of terrorism, extremism and sectarianism.

Authorities have called the Quetta attack - occurring less than two hours after coordinated blasts at Shiite shrines in Iraq killed at least 150 people there - an attempt to destabilize Pakistan .

No group has claimed responsibility for the assault, one of the deadliest in years of sectarian violence in the country. Two of the attackers were among the dead; the third was in critical condition. Police would not reveal the identity of the men.

Enraged Shiites blamed the massacre on extremist Sunni Muslim groups, and targeted a Sunni mosque and shops in retaliatory rioting late Tuesday.

The bloodshed came on Ashoura, a day when Islam's Shiite faithful mark the death of a revered 7th-century leader by marching in black and lashing themselves in penitence.

In Pakistan , the emotional and highly visible annual rites often spark violence between the Sunni Muslim majority and Shiite minority.

A curfew declared immediately after the massacre remained in place across this southwestern city of 1.2 million. Army trucks mounted with machine-guns patrolled the empty roads, and sharpshooters were positioned on rooftops.

Firefighters battled late into Tuesday night to extinguish fires set by rioters at a market near a Shiite mosque. Nearly 60 shops stood gutted, goods scattered outside. A cinema and a bank were also ravaged in overnight arson attacks.

The death toll rose by one to 43 on Wednesday, according to officials at two hospitals in Quetta .

Tasneem Noorani, the top bureaucrat at the Interior Ministry, said a judicial inquiry would be held into the killings. He said six police officers were among the dead.

Allama Mahdi Najfi, the chief Shiite cleric in Quetta , told The Associated Press on Wednesday that they had counted 41 bodies of Shiite worshippers at hospitals. "Some of our people died because of police shooting," he said.

He also complained that police have arrested at least 25 Shiite youths for damaging public property, which he denied. Police said some rioters had been arrested, but declined to give details.

U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said investigators were looking into whether the attacks in Iraq and Pakistan were coordinated - which they couldn't rule out - but said there wasn't any evidence of that so far.

Quetta Mayor Abdul Rahim Kakar, who was near the procession when Tuesday's attack happened, said the slaughter opened when three men sprayed gunfire and hurled grenades into the process of Shiite Muslim faithful.

Walking among the survivors with more explosives lashed to their bodies, the men blew themselves up as police moved in, Kakar said.

Shiite Muslims and unidentified rivals exchanged gunfire at least once in the immediate aftermath, said Riaz Khan, Quetta 's police chief.

Quetta , with a substantial Shiite Muslim minority, is a frequent scene of Shiite-Sunni clashes. In July, attackers armed with machine guns and grenades stormed a Shiite mosque in Quetta , killing 50 people praying inside.

Most of Pakistan 's Sunnis and Shiites live peacefully together, but small radical groups on both sides are responsible for frequent attacks. All but 3 percent of Pakistan 's people are Muslim, and Sunnis outnumber Shiites 4-to-1.

Separately, a fire and an ensuing stampede at a crowded Shiite mosque in Parachinar in northwestern Pakistan killed at least 13 women and children and injured 48 others, authorities said Wednesday. Officials said the fire late Tuesday was caused by a short circuit.

Quetta under curfew after bloodbath

March 04 2004 

Quetta– Quetta was under curfew after 47 people were killed and over 154 received bullet injuries when five suicide bombers armed with explosives and automatic weapons opened indiscriminate firing and detonated explosives on Ashura procession.This was followed by an exchange of heavy firing between mourners and police force on Tuesday.

Three of the attackers, one in wounded state were arrested.

The City Nazim Mohammad Rahim Kakar imposed curfew for indefinite period after the incidents of arson, riot and damage to private property by calling the army that took over the control of the City.

However,curfew was relaxed for two hours in some parts that were considered non-sensitive.

Over 60 shops, two banks and a dozen vehicles includig two police vehicles and a market were burnt while in retaliation two houses belonging to Shia activists were looted and torched.

According to City Nazim Muharram procession was on its route through Sharey Liaquat when a single shot was fired from a window of a room of first floor of Baldia Plaza at Meeza Chowk followed by a medium explosion in the procession some 400 yards away from it.

Later, the participants got panicked which was followed by a stampede and firing from the participants and law enforcement agencies on the window from where fire was opened. However, the witnesses from the procession told that gun shot from a window indicates the launching of the terrorist attack on the mourners followed by three explosions. They say that intense firing was reported by the suicider bombers from the broken window of the room on Bano market and from the adjacent street.

Out of five suicide attackers, two blew themselves up while three, as police claimed were arrested including one in the wounded condition.

The body of one of the attackers was blown into pieces. His headless body was hanging for hours in the window from indiscriminate firing was made. One of the attackers who was named as Abdur Rahim a resident of Peshawar was arrested with serious wounds on his face and body and was immediately rushed to CMH.

Informed sources said that there were two attackers who belonged to Baloch area and Bugalzai tribe and Lashkar-i-Jhangvi. It said that the one Abdur Rahim who was arrested by the police on the suspicion of being terrorist was actually the watchman of the market.

According to sources, the alleged culprit in his preliminary statement told that he and his colleagues belonged to banned sectarian organisation Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and they rented the room of the first floor few days back. The wintnesses who visited the room say that the automatic weapon the police took into possession carried stickers of banned organisations and the empty cases fired on the mourners.

SSP Quetta Operation Abdul Ali Tareen told that around 30 suspects including three suicide attackers were arrested by the police and the owner of Bano Market from where the attack was launched was taken into custody for interrogation.

The eye witnesses from the Press say that the mourners were also seen with automatic weapons and pistols firing on the police and on the people in streets considering them the supporters of banned organisation.

The police and para-military forces were also seen retreating and started running away from the scene and remained defensive.

Later ,few hundreds mourners in various groups started damaging the shops and market, banks and vehicles before torching them. Some 60 shops were burnt on Prince Road and Sharey-i- Liaqat and MenConghi road.

The procession despite stampede continued and passed under the heavy escort of army through the specified route.

The injured were rushed to hospitals where a number of injured succumbed to their injuries.

The doctors of the hospitals confirmed the death of 47 people and injuries to 154. However, the members of Shia community claimed that 42 of the mourners were killed both in terrorist attack and police and Frontier Corps firing and over 150 others got injured.

Six policemen were reported to be killed by the firing of enraged mob of mourners.

Burial delayed: Shias have delayed the burial of most of the people killed in Tuesday’s attack on Ashura procession in Quetta to protest arrests of Shia youths, reported BBC on Wednesday.

About 15 people were detained in Quetta after reprisal attacks, although Shias later reportedly secured their release and set the funerals for Thursday (today).

Hundreds of Shia mourners gathered at a mosque in Quetta on Wednesday, wailing and beating their chests in mourning for those killed.

Leaders of the community said Shias had been arrested when they went to hospitals to donate blood.

“The Quetta incident has exposed the government’s claim of taking foolproof security measures in the country for the protection of mourners,” said Shia leader Tanveer ul-Kazim. “We are feeling insecure and unsafe,” he added.

The leaders met on late Wednesday night and agreed to bury the dead today.

They were preparing to present new demands to the authorities which they refused to specify although it is thought they include the transfer of some provincial and local officials.

SCHOOLS CLOSED: Authorities in Quetta also ordered schools and colleges to close for the rest of the week and advised residents to stay indoors.

Burials for most of the victims took place in the Shia-dominated east of Quetta around noon, residents said.

Mobs rampaging after Tuesday’s violence torched a dozen vehicles and some 70 shops, mostly belonging to followers of Sunni sect in Quetta ’s main business district.

A group of some 150 people later set fire to two houses belonging to Shia activists, police said.

Shia political party, Islami Tehreek, declared three days of mourning over the Quetta killings.

Spokesman Sikandar Abbas Gilani accused authorities of a gross security failure.

‘This proves the government’s claim of providing foolproof security on Ashura was false,’ Gilani told AFP.

‘The Interior Minister (Faisal Saleh Hayat) must accept responsibility for the lapse and resign forthwith.’

Shia leaders demanded the immediate arrest of ‘terrorists.’

Shia political leader Agha Hamid Ali Mosawi also appealed to fellow Shias to remain calm.

MUSHARRAF ORDERS INQUIRY: President Pervez Musharraf condemned the violence as a ‘terrorist attack’ and ordered an inquiry.

The President directed the authorities to take all measures to ‘apprehend the culprits responsible for this heinous act,’ according to an official statement.

Musharraf reiterated his government’s ‘resolve to fight the scourge of terrorism, extremism and sectarianism and to rid the country of this menace.’

Information Minister Sheikh Rashid told PTV that Musharraf had ordered an investigation and promised cash assistance for victims’ relatives.

The Balochistan government also ordered a judicial inquiry into the incident.

Judicial commission CONSTITUTED: Chief Minister of Balochistan Jam Muhammad Yousuf has constituted a judicial commission to probe Quetta procession attack.

Talking to PTV, the Chief Minister condoled with the bereaved families and assured them all sorts of compensation. The Chief Minister vowed that those involved in the tragic incident would be taken to task.

He appealed to the people to remain calm and cooperate with the government.

CM grieved: Punjab Chief Minister, Ch Pervaiz Elahi, has expressed deep sense of shock over an incident of sectarianism in Mandi Bahauddin, which resulted in loss of two precious human lives and injuries to others. He also condoled with the bereaved families over tragic incident.

He also directed the concerned police officers to undertake investigation of the incident and bring the culprits to the justice besides urging the religious leaders to play their role in developing religious harmony as bulwark against sectarianism.

Faisal condemns killings: Meanwhile, Interior Minister Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat on Wednesday strongly condemned the Tuesday’s dastardly terrorist attack in Quetta , which claimed dozens of precious lives, saying the misguided extremists want to create chaos in the country.

He said the government is aware of their designs and determined to continue its fight against extremism, sectarianism and terrorism. 

http://www.reuters.fr/locales/c_newsArticle.jsp?type=topNews&localeKey=fr_FR&storyID=4496153

Les Chiites pakistanais de Quetta demandent des comptes

Thu March 4, 2004 12:53 PM

QUETTA (Reuters) - Plusieurs milliers de Chiites ont assisté jeudi à Quetta aux obsèques de la plupart des 44 personnes tuées deux jours plus tôt dans un attentat contre une procession religieuse dans cette localité du sud-ouest du Pakistan.

Les funérailles de 32 victimes avaient auparavant été reportées à la demande des représentants de la communauté chiite qui réclamaient les démissions du chef de la police et de responsables de l'administration locale, qui ont été incapables d'assurer la sécurité de la procession en dépit de consignes nationales.

"A bas l'administration incompétente! A bas le gouvernement provincial!", ont été repris en choeur par la foule en deuil, qu'un témoin a évalué à 20.000 personnes.

Jan Ali Shah Kazmi, un dignitaire chiite local, a en outre affirmé que les "terroristes" qui ont ouvert le feu sur la foule n'étaient pas seuls en cause et a accusé les forces de l'ordre d'avoir tiré sur les fidèles.

"Nous réclamons l'arrestation immédiate des policiers responsables de la mort d'innocents", a-t-il lancé, exigeant en outre la levée du couvre-feu imposé après les émeutes qui ont suivi le massacre de mardi.

Comme à Bagdad et à Kerbala, où des attentats ont fait 171 morts le même jour, l'opération visait la procession organisée dans le centre de Quetta à l'occasion du deuil de l'Achoura, qui commémore la mort de l'imam Hussein, petit-fils de Mahomet, au VIIe siècle.

Les autorités ont mis en cause le mouvement sunnite interdit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, responsable de nombreux attentats religieux.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040305/wl_asia_afp/pakistan_religion_040305174251

Pakistan lifts curfew in carnage-hit city

Fri Mar 5,12:42 PM ET

QUETTA, Pakistan (AFP) - Troops patrolled the tense Pakistani city of Quetta for a fourth day as authorities partially lifted a 24-hour curfew imposed after an attack on a Shiite festival that killed 47 people.

While authorities maintained a ban on people moving around the southwestern city's central business district, normal outdoor activities were allowed in less sensitive outlying areas.

A Shiite religious procession was turned into a bloodbath Tuesday after gunmen shot and threw grenades into the crowd, sparking riots and confused firing by security forces and some followers of the procession.

The Shiites, a 20 percent minority among Pakistan 's 140 million Muslims, were observing the holy day of Ashura, which commemorates the martyrdom of a seventh-century Muslim saint.

The attack was one of the worst in Pakistan 's bloody history of sectarian violence. It coincided with anti-Shiite carnage in Iraq but no link between the attacks has been established.

Some 500 women staged a demonstration in the city's Shiite dominated area on Friday to demand the killers be arrested.

The protesters, including children, carried placards and chanted slogans saying that negligence by police and local authorities was to blame for the attack.

In the eastern city of Lahore , some 200 Shiite youth staged a similar rally. Waving banners reading "stop terrorism", they blocked traffic by burning tires before dispersing peacefully.

President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali condemned the attack and reiterated the government's resolve "to rid the country of the scourge of terrorism, extremism and sectarianism," an official statement said.

They reviewed the law and order situation in the country and directed the concerned authorities to take "all possible measures for apprehending those responsible and awarding them exemplary punishment."

Police have released artists' impressions of three men who hired a room in a building along the route of the Shiite procession from which the attack was mounted.

"We have prepared sketches of three suspects who came to hire the place. We will also announce a reward for anyone providing information about the suspects," a senior police investigator told AFP.

Body parts of two of the attackers, who appear to have blown themselves up, were found in the room along with a submachine gun and some 200 empty bullet casings, said the investigator, who did not want to be named.

A third suspected attacker was wounded and is under arrest.

"We are trying to obtain information from him. It is not yet clear what role he had played in the attack," Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat told AFP.

Investigators have named the outlawed extremist group Lashkar-i-Jhangvi as a prime suspect.

The group, banned by Musharraf in August 2001, comprises hardcore fanatics of the rival Sunni sect, which the majority of Pakistan 's Muslims follow.

The group's name was engraved on the submachine gun, and bullet casings were inscribed with anti-Shiite slogans, investigators said.

Shiite leaders Friday filed a formal complaint with Quetta police against three leaders of a radical Sunni group, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan , and several police officers involved in Tuesday's incident, police officer Mohammad Ayaz said.

He said police will assess the legality of the complaint before registering a case.

About the police officers named in the complaint, he said a judicial probe had been ordered into whether they fired their weapons during the attacks and action would be taken against those found guilty.

A high court judge heading an inquiry into the violence, Mohammad Nadir Khan, said he will summons witnesses from Monday.

Quetta lies 100 kilometres ( 62 miles ) from the Afghan border and 760 kilometres southwest of the capital, Islamabad .

Despite generally peaceful relations between the two communities, there have been sectarian drive-by shootings and attacks on mosques since the early 1980s.