Pakistan Bombing Prompts Ban on Gatherings
Pakistan Times Federal Bureau Report

ISLAMABAD: The government has banned all congregations except for Friday (Jummah) prayers while to ensure the peace and safety in the country full implementation of the anti-terrorism act 2002 would be enforced.

Federal interior minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao in a press briefing said this after a meeting with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and heads of the law enforcing agencies.

He said that during the decisions in the meeting Maulana Fazl-ur-Rahman, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Sami-ul-Haq, Amin Fahim, and Chaudry Nisar have been contacted.

Public Gatherings Banned

After Thursday's attack, Interior Minister announced the government had banned public gatherings except for prayers on Friday to prevent more attacks. He did not say how the ban would last.

"The federal government has asked the provincial governments to impose a ban on all kinds of political and religious gathering, except from Friday prayers," Sherpao said at a news conference in Islamabad.

The interior minister said that except for the Juma prayers a ban has been imposed on all other congregations and the implementation of the anti-terrorism act 2002 is being made compulsory. Moreover banned organizations would not be allowed to carry out their activities and those breaking the law would be dealt with severly.

Meetings with Ulema

Sherpao said that the district governments would consult the provincial governments and a series of meetings with Ulema’s would be started along with the ministry of religious affairs in which the Ulema’s would be invited to play a role for inter-sect harmony all over the country.

He said that the information ministry would inform the masses that if they see a suspected person then they should inform the law enforcing agencies immediately.

Recap

A bomb attack in central Pakistan Thursday, which killed at least 40 people, wounded more than 100 prompted the government to ban religious and political gatherings nationwide.

Two bombs planted in a car and motorcycle exploded at a pre-dawn gathering of about 3,000 in the city of Multan in what police suspected was a sectarian attack.

Some 2,000 angry people gathered outside a hospital where victims were taken, shouting slogans against the government, witnesses said.

They shattered the windshields of two ambulances and burned tires, sending a pall of black smoke into the air.

Police Contingents

About 1,000 police were called into the city and soldiers were patrolling to stop any clashing. Schools and colleges in Multan were closed for two days to stop potential student protests, said Ijaz Chaudhry, a senior government administrator.

The bombings came six days after another suspected sectarian attack by a suicide bomber inside a crowded mosque in the eastern city of Sialkot during Friday prayers which killed 31 people and injured more than 50.

Security Tightened

Police also tightened security in other cities. In Karachi, scene of sectarian attacks and unrest in May, extra police were deployed at mosques.

The bombs went off around 4:40 a.m. in a residential neighborhood of Multan as thousands were dispersing after prayers for the soul of Maulana Azam Tariq, the leader of the radical group Sipah-e-Sahaba who was gunned down near Islamabad last year. The group was marking the anniversary of his death.

The Episode

A 15-pound remote-controlled bomb planted inside a Suzuki car exploded first, officials said. It did not appear to be a suicide attack. Two minutes later, a second bomb attached to a motorcycle went off, deputy city police chief Arshad Hameed said.

"It seems to be an act of sectarian terrorism, but we are still investigating," he said.

Officials at the Nishtar government hospital said at least 40 people were killed and more than 100 were wounded, about 50 seriously. Some 50 others were treated for minor injuries and discharged.

The Bloodied Victims

Inside the hospital, bloodied victims were crammed into an emergency ward, some lying two to a bed. Dozens of dead were placed side-by-side on the floor of another ward.

At the scene of the attack, pools of blood and shoes of victims were scattered near the charred remains of the car bomb.

Stampede

Jamil Usmani, 26, who had been standing in a nearby parking lot with friends, said a stampede after the bombing caused many injuries.

"The explosion numbed our ears, we saw people falling on each other, everybody was crying, everybody was running," he said. "Many people were injured in the stampede, we started picking them up and asked passing cars for help."

The attack Thursday came hours after the burial of an alleged top al-Qaeda operative and militant Amjad Hussain Farooqi at a village in eastern Punjab province.

Farooqi was killed in a shootout with security forces Sept. 26 in southern Pakistan. He was a member of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a breakaway militant faction of Sipah-e-Sahaba, and had been accused in the 2002 kidnapping and beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl.●