Security boosted after suicide bomber attacks

Pakistani army troops were put on alert on Sunday to guard against sectarian violence, a day after a suicide bomber killed 15 people in an attack on a Shi8217;ite mosque in the northwest city of Peshawar, officials said on Sunday.

Pakistani army troops were put on alert on Sunday to guard against sectarian violence, a day after a suicide bomber killed 15 people in an attack on a Shi8217;ite mosque in the northwest city of Peshawar, officials said on Sunday.

Soldiers were ready to be deployed to any of 40 districts considered potential flashpoints for violence during the festival of Ashoura, observed by Pakistan8217;s minority Shi8217;ite Muslim sect, Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said.

Sharp shooters from the police and paramilitary troops also have been stationed around Shi8217;ite mosques to prevent further violence, he said.

Meanwhile, the chief minister of North West Frontier Province, of which Peshawar is the capital, called for calm on Sunday between Shi8217;ites and the majority Sunnis. Security was also stepped up Sunday in Pakistan8217;s southern port city of Karachi after an intelligence report indicated the threat of a car bombing, police said.

No group has claimed responsibility for Saturday8217;s bombing in downtown Peshawar that also killed the city8217;s police chief and wounded more than 30 other people, and came as Pakistan8217;s Shi8217;ites began celebrating their most important annual festival, Ashoura, which has often been a target of anti-Shi8217;ite violence.

Chief Minister Akram Durrani asked the general public to demonstrate 8220;patience and maintain religious discipline,8221; state-run Associated Press of Pakistan news agency reported. Most Sunnis and Shi8217;ites coexist peacefully in Pakistan, but militant groups on both sides are blamed for sectarian attacks that claim scores of lives every year.

Heavily armed police and security forces in pickup trucks and armoured personnel carriers patrolled streets in Shi8217;ite-dominated areas in Peshawar on Sunday, but no violence was reported. In Karachi, police and troops from the paramilitary Rangers force were ordered to check all vehicles entering the city for explosives, said Jehangir Mirza, chief of police for Sindh province, where Karachi is the capital.

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Mirza said police received an intelligence report early on Sunday indicating that an explosives-laden car was heading to Karachi from Dera Ismail Khan, a city near the South Waziristan tribal region where a militant leader earlier this month warned of attacks against the government.