madkins
Registered
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Timesonline.co.uk
June 01, 2005
Six killed at KFC as protesters seek revenge for mosque attack
From Zahid Hussain in Islamabad
SIX employees of a KFC restaurant in Karachi were killed when an angry mob set the building on fire during a night of violence sparked by a suicide-bomb attack on a Shia mosque.
Four of the victims were burnt to death. Two others died after taking refuge in a refrigeration unit.
Azam Ali, the Karachi fire chief, said: "t was a very sad scene. When we found the bodies in the freezer, one of them had a cellphone in his hand with a missed call from his wife.
Security forces were put on high alert amid fears that a wave of sectarian violence might engulf the southern port city and spread across Pakistan.
The violence erupted when a suicide bomber blew himself up on Monday during evening prayers inside a Shia mosque
r
in the city's middle-class neighbourhood of Gulsh
an-i-Iqbal. Four other people, including a policeman, were killed.
Police said that the bomber was an activist of Jaish-i- Muhammad, a Sunni sectarian group linked to the ousted Taleban regime in Afghanistan and to al-Qaeda. The group has been involved in many terrorist attacks since Pakistan joined the United States-led War on Terror, including the murder of Daniel Pearl, an American journalist who was kidnapped and killed, and several assassination attempts on President Musharraf.
After the bombing, hundreds of protesters, chanting anti-government slogans, attacked vehicles, petrol stations, banks and the American-owned fast-food outlet. Two electricity transformers were destroyed, plunging part of the city into darkness.
Shia mobs often target symbols of American influence after sectarian attacks because they accuse the pro-American Government of General Musharraf of failing to act to prevent religious violence. Later yesterday dozens
of
Shia Muslims tried to attack another KFC restaurant af
ter the funeral of one of the mosque victims.
In a separate incident, assailants shot and killed Aslam Mujahid, a senior member of Jamaa-i-Islami, Pakistan's largest Islamic group, after he was kidnapped from a funeral for another dead member of the group. The group has called for a general strike in Karachi today to condemn the killings.
There has been a marked surge in religious violence in Pakistan, despite the Government's claims to have curbed extremism. Most of the attacks are by Sunni extremists on the Shia minority, who form barely 17 per cent of the population.
Last week 24 people were killed and dozens wounded in a suicide-bomb attack on a shrine in Islamabad packed with Shia devotees. More than 100 Sunnis and Shias have died in sectarian violence this year.
While General Musharraf wins international praise for opposing terrorism, a widespread terrorist infrastructure persists in Pakistan.
Pakistan has c
aptured
hundreds of al-Qaeda fugitives, but its record in fighting homegro
wn terrorism is poor. The Government has backtracked from its pledge to reform madrassas, religious schools that are the main centres for Islamic militancy and religious extremism.
Skerryvore,
madkins
Timesonline.co.uk
June 01, 2005
Six killed at KFC as protesters seek revenge for mosque attack
From Zahid Hussain in Islamabad
SIX employees of a KFC restaurant in Karachi were killed when an angry mob set the building on fire during a night of violence sparked by a suicide-bomb attack on a Shia mosque.
Four of the victims were burnt to death. Two others died after taking refuge in a refrigeration unit.
Azam Ali, the Karachi fire chief, said: "t was a very sad scene. When we found the bodies in the freezer, one of them had a cellphone in his hand with a missed call from his wife.
Security forces were put on high alert amid fears that a wave of sectarian violence might engulf the southern port city and spread across Pakistan.
The violence erupted when a suicide bomber blew himself up on Monday during evening prayers inside a Shia mosque
r
in the city's middle-class neighbourhood of Gulsh
an-i-Iqbal. Four other people, including a policeman, were killed.
Police said that the bomber was an activist of Jaish-i- Muhammad, a Sunni sectarian group linked to the ousted Taleban regime in Afghanistan and to al-Qaeda. The group has been involved in many terrorist attacks since Pakistan joined the United States-led War on Terror, including the murder of Daniel Pearl, an American journalist who was kidnapped and killed, and several assassination attempts on President Musharraf.
After the bombing, hundreds of protesters, chanting anti-government slogans, attacked vehicles, petrol stations, banks and the American-owned fast-food outlet. Two electricity transformers were destroyed, plunging part of the city into darkness.
Shia mobs often target symbols of American influence after sectarian attacks because they accuse the pro-American Government of General Musharraf of failing to act to prevent religious violence. Later yesterday dozens
of
Shia Muslims tried to attack another KFC restaurant af
ter the funeral of one of the mosque victims.
In a separate incident, assailants shot and killed Aslam Mujahid, a senior member of Jamaa-i-Islami, Pakistan's largest Islamic group, after he was kidnapped from a funeral for another dead member of the group. The group has called for a general strike in Karachi today to condemn the killings.
There has been a marked surge in religious violence in Pakistan, despite the Government's claims to have curbed extremism. Most of the attacks are by Sunni extremists on the Shia minority, who form barely 17 per cent of the population.
Last week 24 people were killed and dozens wounded in a suicide-bomb attack on a shrine in Islamabad packed with Shia devotees. More than 100 Sunnis and Shias have died in sectarian violence this year.
While General Musharraf wins international praise for opposing terrorism, a widespread terrorist infrastructure persists in Pakistan.
Pakistan has c
aptured
hundreds of al-Qaeda fugitives, but its record in fighting homegro
wn terrorism is poor. The Government has backtracked from its pledge to reform madrassas, religious schools that are the main centres for Islamic militancy and religious extremism.
Skerryvore,
madkins