50 Killed in Pakistan Attack

A suicide attacker detonated a powerful bomb inside a crowded mosque in northwestern Pakistan on Friday, killing at least 50 people and injuring 80 as they celebrated one of Islam's major holidays with the country's former interior minister, Pakistani officials said.

The official, Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, was unhurt, but his son and two grandnephews were injured in the attack. The bombing was the second assassination attempt in eight months on Mr. Sherpao, who served as the country's top law enforcement official until last month.

In a telephone interview, Mr. Sherpao said that the bomb exploded as he and his relatives prayed in the front row of worshipers. He said he believed that the attacker had detonated the bomb in the third or fourth row of worshipers.

"It was a massacre," Mr. Sherpao said, his voice shaking with anger. "I can tell you that."

Independent Pakistani television stations showed images of blood-spattered prayer caps and clothes scattered across a white marble courtyard outside the mosque. Trails of scarlet blood marked where the injured were dragged from the building. Dozens of pairs of shoes – those of the dead and wounded -- lay abandoned.

The mosque, a modest white structure, was in the former minister's family compound in his ancestral village of Sherpao. A local police official estimated that hundreds of people were inside the mosque at the time of the attack, celebrating the holiday with him. The number of dead was expected to rise through the day.

In an interview on a local Pakistani television station, Farman Ali, a local government official, expressed "shock" that better security arrangements were not made during Mr. Sherpao's visit.

In April, a suicide bomber killed 28 people in an attack on Mr. Sherpao's political party in the nearby town of Charsadda. Mr. Sherpao was slightly injured in that attack.

Mr. Ali, the local official, said scores of maimed and injured overwhelmed hospitals in the area, prompting local officials to declare a state of emergency. Ambulances ferried to hospitals in Peshawar, the capital of the North-West Frontier Province, roughly 25 miles away.

Four people died while being transported to Peshawar, an independent Pakistani television news station reported. It also showed images of Mr. Sherpao visiting hospital wards jammed with bewilldered men and boys maimed in the attack.

An attack inside a mosque during Id al-Adha, one of the most important Muslim holidays, represents an escalation of violence by militants who have carried out an unprecedented number of suicide bombings this year. Hundreds of Pakistani civilians have died in the attacks.

The holiday, which means "Festival of Sacrifice," marks the end of the annual hajj pilgrimage in the city of Mecca and celebrates Ibrahim's willingness to sacrifice his son when ordered to do so by God. Islam views Ibrahim, who is known as Abraham in the bible, Jesus and other biblical figures as minor prophets.

This year's deadliest suicide bombing occurred during a procession celebrating the return of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to Pakistan in October. The attack, which is believed to have involved two suicide bombers, killed at least 134 people and wounded another 450, most of them volunteers in Mrs. Bhutto's party. Mrs. Bhutto was not hurt in the attack.

Mr. Sherpao is running for parliament in nationwide elections scheduled for Jan. 8. He and all other minister's in Mr. Musharraf's government resigned last month to allow a caretaker government to oversee elections. The practice is common in parliamentary democracies.

Many of the suicide bombers are believed to be trained in the country's lawless tribal areas, where 100,000 Pakistani troops have been deployed to drive out Taliban and foreign militants. Backed by members of Al Qaeda, Taliban militants based in the tribal areas have carried out a record number of suicide bombings in Pakistan and Afghanistan this year. The Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is also believed to be hiding in the area.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/22/wo...2pakistan.html