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Pakistan city halts to bury 45 bomb dead



Traffic was thin as Karachi's educational institutions, businesses and markets closed on Monday after the local government announced a day of mourning.

Pakistan's largest city has shut down to mourn 45 people killed by a car bomb in a Shi'ite Muslim neighbourhood, the latest in a series of devastating pre-election attacks.

Traffic was thin as Karachi's educational institutions, businesses and markets closed on Monday after the local government announced a day of mourning and Shi'ite groups three days of mourning for those killed in the blast.

The bomb exploded as Sunday worshippers were leaving mosques in Abbas Town, ripping through two apartment blocks and trapping people beneath piles of rubble.

Those who survived but whose homes were damaged or destroyed are being housed temporarily in schools, officials said.

Local transport and traders' associations said they would not be working on Monday.

"There will be no public transport on the roads today," said Karachi Transporters Association chief Irshad Bokhari.

Head of the Karachi Traders' Alliance, Attique Mir also said shopping centres and malls as well as business activity would remain suspended.

Karachi is vital to Pakistan's economy, contributing 42 per cent of GDP, 70 per cent of income tax revenue and 62 per cent of sales tax revenue.

But the city is plagued by sectarian, ethnic and political violence that last year killed more than 2200 people and which routinely forces closures, damaging businesses.

On Monday, the stock market was open, but Mohammad Sohail of brokerage firm Topline Securities said there were fewer dealers and trading volumes were low.

Officials said 45 people, including women and children, were killed and around 150 others wounded in the attack.

Although Abbas Town is a mainly Shi'ite neighbourhood, officials said some Sunni Muslims were also among the dead.

Police are preparing a list of those killed and are trying to identify the dead with the help of their relatives.

Pakistan's parliament is due to dissolve in two weeks in preparation for elections but rising violence against Shi'ites, who make up around 20 per cent of the 180 million population, has raised serious questions about security.

"The unfortunate reality is that things could take a turn for the worse as tensions increase ahead of the approaching general elections," newspaper The News wrote in an editorial on Monday.

"The risk of violence, especially in Karachi, is very real. With election preparations in full swing, the processions, meetings and rallies that accompany our electoral campaigns have the potential to lead to chaos," it added.

Last year was the deadliest year on record for Shi'ites in Pakistan with more than 400 killed, according to Human Rights Watch.

A bomb at a shrine visited by Shi'ites in Shikarpur district, some 400 kilometres northeast of Karachi, killed two people last Monday.

A day later the Supreme Court ordered the authorities to come up with a strategy to protect Shi'ites after bomb attacks on Shi'ite Hazaras in the southwest on January 10 and February 16 killed nearly 200 people.

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