PAKISTAN: MASKED GUNMEN KILL 20 WORSHIPPERS IN DAWN ASSAULTS ON SHI'ITE MOSLEM MOSQUES

Record ID: 377026

  • Title: PAKISTAN: MASKED GUNMEN KILL 20 WORSHIPPERS IN DAWN ASSAULTS ON SHI'ITE MOSLEM MOSQUES
  • Date: 24th February 1995
  • Summary: LAHORE AND KARACHI, PAKISTAN (FEBRUARY 24 AND 25, 1995) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) LAHORE (FEBRUARY 24) 1. GV/SV/PAN SHI'ITE PROTESTORS MARCHING AGAINST ARREST OF THEIR LEADERS WITH BANNERS FLAGS (4 SHOTS) 0.20 KARACHI (FEBRUARY 25) 2. LV EXTERIOR OF MOSQUE 0.24 3. SLV/TRACK PEOPLE OUTSIDE THE MOSQUE WITH AMBULANCE (2
  • Embargoed: 11th March 1995 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: KARACHI AND LAHORE, PAKISTAN
  • City:
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Reuters ID: LVA1IOEYZZPLDVA1R4W9FR1O9JB1
  • Story Text: Masked gunmen killed 20 worshippers in dawn assaults on two Shi'ite Moslem mosques in Pakistan's southern city of Karachi on Saturday (February 25) and Shi'ites later went on a rampage during an emotional funeral, police said.

    Angry Shi'ite youngsters, ignoring loudspeaker appeals for calm from funeral organisers, exchanged small-arms fire with police deployed around a soccer ground, where about 10,000 mourners had gathered.

    Witnesses said the militants attacked the nearby offices of a newspaper group and burned furniture and five vehicles. The motive for the attack was not clear.

    The dawn attacks, among the bloodiest in a series of tit-for-tat killings between militant Sunni and Shi'ite factions, raised fears of further violence in Karachi, where 154 people have died this month in ethnic and sectarian unrest.

    Fourteen people were killed at a Shi'ite place of worship, or Imambargah, near Shahid-i-Millat road in downtown Karachi, and six died at an Imambargah in the city's eastern PIB Colony district, Javed Iqbal, deputy inspector general of Karachi police, told a news conference.

    The attacks followed a day of protests by Islamic militants across Pakistan on Friday (February 24) against a Lahore High Court decision to acquit two Christians sentenced to hang for blasphemy.

    But the mosque killings did not appear to be related.

    The killings raised to 149 this month's death toll from ethnic and sectarian violence in Karachi, a metropolis of 12 million people, where at least 800 were killed last year.


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