2 killed in Pakistan after Shi'ite procession

Islamabad, Jan 30: Rocket and mortar fire killed at least two people returning from a Shi'ite religious procession in Pakistan today, police and hospital officials said.

The attack took place in Hangu, in North West Frontier Province, where a year ago 40 people were killed by a suicide bomber during an Ashura procession, the climax of the Islamic holy month of Muharram for followers of the Shi'ite sect.

Senior administrator Fakkahar-e-Alam said the Shi'ites came under fire as this year's Ashura procession dispersed, and two people were killed and nine wounded.

On the tenth day of Muharram, known as Ashura, Shi'ites beat themselves with sharpened chains during processions to mourn the anniversary of the death of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet, during a battle in Kerbala, a city in modern-day Iraq, in 680 AD There has been a spate of sectarian attacks in the days leading up to this year's Ashura.

Thousands of people have been killed in sectarian violence in Pakistan since the 1980s due to feuding Sunni and Shi'ite extremist groups.

Shi'ites make up around 15 per cent of the mostly Sunni Muslim nation.

REUTERS>