Blast in Pak mosque

Security was tightened in major Pakistani cities today after a suicide attack outside a mosque, amid fears of violence as the nation marked Muharram, officials said. Investigators were poring over material collected from the Yadgar-e-Hussein mosque in Rawalpindi after an attacker detonated explosives strapped to his body, killing himself and injuring two other people last evening.

Officials said they had not identified the attacker and there was no claim of responsibility. The Muharram holiday has previously been marred by attacks against the government and Shiites by extremist Sunni Muslim groups. In Karachi, Paramilitary Rangers were patrolling in sensitive areas of the city and checkpoints were set up on streets to check vehicles for weapons, police said.

8216;8216;Police in the entire province, especially in Karachi, have been put on high alert after the attack in Rawalpindi,8217;8217; said Syed Kamal Shah, the Chief of Police for Sindh province. Officials said that security was being beefed up at airports too, though they said they had no intelligence that would indicate a specific threat to air facilities. 8212; PTI