By DPA,
Islamabad : At least six people were killed and about 25 injured Friday when an explosion ripped through a Shia Muslim funeral in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province, officials said.
An angry crowd took to the streets after the blast and some people fired guns into the air in Dera Ismail Khan city, 300 km south of the provincial capital Peshawar.
A small crowd also threw stones at police outside the hospital.
“Six bodies and 20 injured have been moved here,” said Ashiq Saleem, head of the district headquarter’s hospital.
“Five wounded are in critical condition,” he said.
Province’s Information Minister Iftikhar Hussain put the toll at 10.
The funeral was for a young Shia man, Iqbal Shahid, who was gunned down Thursday.
It was not immediately clear whether the bombing was the result of a suicide bomber or a planted device.
Dera Ismail Khan has seen dozens of incidents of sectarian violence over the past several years, including one in Aug 19 when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the hospital where a crowd of Shia Muslims had gathered after the assassination of their local leader by unknown gunmen riding on a motorbike.
Pro-Taliban militants had owned responsibility for the attack.