Pat Dollard

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So this weekend starts the Ashura festival where the Shia whack themselves with various instruments and let the blood flow…Sunni outnumber Shia 4 to 1 in Pakistan, and they usually see this time of year as “Time to Kill Shia Festival”.

Freakin’ animals.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – A suicide bomber fired gunshots then blew himself up at a Shiite mosque in Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least seven people and injuring 20 others, authorities and witnesses said.

The blast came as minority Shiite Muslims prepared to mark the Ashoura festival, which is often marred by sectarian violence involving rival Sunnis.

Arshad Ali, whose brother died in the blast, said the attacker was a man aged about 18 who walked into the crowded Imambargah Qasim Baig mosque, opened fire with a pistol and then blew himself up.

“People present there tried to stop him. He took out a pistol, shot three times and then blew himself up,” Ali said, wailing and beating his chest in grief.

Peshawar police chief Tanvir Sipra said seven people including one policeman who tried to stop the bomber from entering the mosque were killed and a few policewomen were among the wounded.

A crowd of enraged Shiites, crying and beating their chests, prevented an Associated Press reporter from reaching the scene. Police also had difficulty approaching the mosque.

The blast in Peshawar occurred when the Imambargah Qasim Baig mosque was crowded with worshippers.

Ashoura, which falls this weekend, is the culmination of Shiite rites during the holy month of Muharram when they mourn the seventh century death of the prophet Mohammad’s grandson, Imam Hussein — an event that led to the split in Islam between the Shiite and Sunni sects.

Shiites stage processions and beat their bare backs with chains and blades, bloodying themselves in a sign of penitence.

Such violence breaks out during Muharram each year. In 2005, about 50 people were killed when a bomb ripped through a Shiite shrine in southwestern Pakistan.

In a prerecorded appearance on state television, aired late Thursday, President Pervez Musharraf described suicide attackers as “mad” and misguided into thinking they were serving Islam.

(AP)