Bomb blast at Ganj Shakar’s shrine kills six

ISLAMABAD
A bomb explosion at one of the main gates of Baba Farid Ganj Shakar’s shrine in Pakpattan killed six people on Monday, a city government official said. The explosive was planted on a motorcycle, city police chief Mohammad Kashif told Reuters over telephone.
“According to initial reports, two men came on a motorcycle and parked it near the gate minutes before the blast,” he said, adding that 12 people had been inured in the attack.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Taliban have attacked Sufi shrines in the past as well. The militants generally abhor the Sufi strand of Islam and disapprove of visiting shrines, which is popular with many people.
The blast demolished a boundary wall and damaged several shops and stalls outside the shrine, witnesses told AFP. Police said the mausoleum was undamaged and that the blast took place near the eastern gate, which was closed for security reasons.
Doctor Mohammad Ashraf, head of the local hospital in Pakpattan, said two women were among the dead and three women among the injured. Seven people were later discharged, while two seriously wounded patients were moved to Lahore, Ashraf told AFP. Fazl Karim, leader of the Sunni Ittehad Council, called the attack “an attempt to create sectarian unrest”.
“There will be a three-day mourning and protest rallies will be held across Pakistan on Friday,” Karim said in Karachi. The Pakpattan site is the second most popular Sufi shrine after the Data Darbar in Lahore, where two suicide bombers blew themselves up among crowds of worshippers in July, killing 42 people.
On October 7, two suicide bombers blew themselves up at a Sufi shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi in Karachi, killing nine worshippers, including two children. Mufti Muneebur Rehman said the government appeared powerless in the face of an extremist campaign.