Bombing kills 39 in Pakistan

MULTAN, Pakistan -- A bomb attack on Sunni Muslim radicals in central Pakistan Thursday killed at least 39 people, wounded more than 100 and prompted the government to ban religious and political gatherings nationwide.\nTwo bombs planted in a car and motorcycle exploded at a pre-dawn gathering of about 3,000 Sunnis in the city of Multan in what police suspected was a sectarian attack.\nSome 2,000 angry Sunnis gathered outside a hospital where victims were taken, shouting "Shiites are infidels!" and 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.\nAbout 1,000 police were called into the city and soldiers were patrolling it to stop Sunnis and Shiites from clashing. Schools and colleges in Multan were closed for two days to stop potential student protests, said Ijaz Chaudhry, a senior government administrator.\nThe bombings came six days after another suspected sectarian attack by a suicide bomber inside a crowded Shiite mosque in the eastern city of Sialkot during Friday prayers that killed 31 people and injured more than 50.\nAfter Thursday's attack, Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao announced the government had banned public gatherings -- except for prayers on Friday, the Muslim sabbath -- to prevent more attacks. He did not say how long the ban would last.\n"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.\nPolice also tightened security in other cities. In Karachi, scene of sectarian attacks and unrest in May, extra police were deployed at mosques.\nThe 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 Sunni radical group Sipah-e-Sahaba who was gunned down near Islamabad last year. The group was marking the anniversary of his death, which was blamed on Shiite Muslim militants.\nA 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.\n"It seems to be an act of sectarian terrorism, but we are still investigating," he told The Associated Press.\nOfficials at the Nishtar government hospital said at least 39 people were killed and more than 100 were wounded, about 50 seriously. Some 50 others were treated for minor injuries and discharged.\nInside 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.\nAt the scene of the attack, pools of blood and shoes of victims were scattered near the charred remains of the car bomb.\nJamil Usmani, 26, who had been standing in a nearby parking lot with friends, said a stampede after the bombing caused many injuries.\n"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."\nPakistan has a history of sectarian violence. Sunni Muslims make up about 80 percent of the 150 million people in Pakistan, and the rest are mostly Shiites. The vast majority of both sects live in harmony but radical elements on both sides carry out attacks.\nPakistan, a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism, has suffered a spate of attacks in recent years.\nThe attack Thursday came hours after the burial of an alleged top al Qaeda operative and Sunni Muslim militant Amjad Hussain Farooqi at a village in eastern Punjab province.\nFarooqi 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 attacks on Shiites and in the 2002 kidnapping and beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl.\nThe leader of Sipah-e-Sahaba, Ahmad Ludhianvi, blamed Thursday's bombings on radical Shiites.\nHe demanded the immediate arrest of the attackers, but added the group's activists had been told not "to take the law into their own hands."\n"We are peaceful but there will be no guarantee for peace after one week if those who have killed our people are not arrested," Ludhianvi told 5,000 mourners at a mass funeral for 31 victims of the attack.