Tense Karachi prepares to bury slain Shi'ite cleric

KARACHI, July 15 (Reuters) Pakistani police today stepped up security at mosques, Western consulates and fast-food franchises in Karachi, as Shi'ite Muslim mourners congregated to bury a leading cleric killed by a suicide bomber a day earlier.

Allama Hassan Turabi, a leader of the Islami Tehrik and member of the main Islamist alliance, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), was killed yesterday along with a nephew when a suicide bomber blew himself up in front of the cleric's house.

The motive for the attack was still unknown and no group has yet claimed responsibility for the killing of Turabi, though police said it bore the hallmarks of Sunni Muslim militants.

''We have not come to any conclusion yet but one key focus of the investigation is LJ,'' said senior police investigator Niaz Ahmad Khosso, referring to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, an anti-Shi'a group whose members have forged ties with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda.

''This is because the explosives used are similar to those used in at least three previous LJ attacks,'' he said.

Police said the suicide bomber had 2.5 kg (5.5 lb) of plastic explosives strapped to his body, but only struck after an accomplice threw a grenade that did not explode.

Turabi had survived an assassination attempt in April when his car was hit by a remote-controlled bomb.

''It is a barbaric act and it could be part of a campaign against Shi'ite and religious people,'' Allama Sajid Ali Naqvi, an Islami Tehrik leader, told Reuters in Islamabad before departing for Karachi where he was due to lead prayers.

Karachi has borne the brunt of sectarian violence between Pakistan's majority Sunni Muslims and minority Shi'ites that has killed thousands of people since the 1980s.

Naqvi said Pakistan and Shi'ites were still suffering a backlash from a time when US and Saudi money was pumped into the country to arm and recruit mostly Sunni fighters in a war against the Soviet occupation of neighbouring Afghanistan.

''Those who were trained for the Afghan war, their network has not yet been dismantled and we are seeing the results,'' he said.

Analysts say sectarian attacks in the last few years were also aimed at undermining President Pervez Musharraf, as militants were enraged by his alliance with Washington after al Qaeda's September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Sunni Muslim extremists were blamed for a series of attacks on Shi'ite mosques in Karachi earlier this year.

Manzoor Mughal, head of city's police investigation department, said police have released a picture of the bomber, whose head was blown off in the attack, and authorities were scouring a national data base to try to identify him.

''The remains of the bomber were also sent for DNA tests and the government has announced a reward of five million rupees (83,000 dollar) for information about the bomber,'' he added.

Mughal said additional police were deployed to guard mosques and Shi'ite religious centres in the city.

Protesters set at least seven vehicles on fire, blocked roads and attacked a petrol station in a Shia-dominated neighbourhood.

Security was heightened at the US and several European consulates, as well as outside foreign fast food restaurants, which have been targeted in the past.

Shi'ite leaders have called for three days of mourning, and main markets, business centres and petrol stations were closed.

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