KARACHI, March 4, (Agencies): Thousands of Pakistanis attended funerals Monday for victims of a bombing that killed 48 people in a Shiite Muslim area of Karachi, the latest in a series of devastating attacks ahead of elections.

The bomb exploded in Abbas Town as worshippers left mosques and ripped through two apartment blocks, setting one of them on fire and trapping people beneath piles of rubble. Survivors are being housed temporarily in schools.

It was the deadliest bombing in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and business hub, since at least 43 people died in an attack on Shiite worshippers in December 2009.

There has been no claim of responsibility. But suspicion will likely fall on banned Sunni extremist organisation Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which has claimed major attacks on Shiites in the city of Quetta, and on the Pakistani Taleban.

Thousands of men, women and children, many of them wearing black headbands, beat their chests and heads and sobbed as eight coffins passed by at the start of the first funeral, an AFP reporter said.

Traffic was light as educational institutions, businesses and markets closed after the local government announced one day of mourning and Shiite groups three days of mourning for those killed in Sunday’s bombing.

At least 4,000 people turned out for the funerals, police officers estimated.

Karachi contributes 42 percent of Pakistan’s GDP but the city is plagued by sectarian, ethnic and political violence, which last year killed more than 2,200 people and which routinely forces business closures.
Rights groups have strongly criticised the government for failing to prevent sectarian murders and bombings or to bring to justice those responsible.

“Terrorists are killing us but the government is not taking any action to eliminate them,” said Mohsin Ali, 29, a Shiite whose elder brother was killed.

“How long will we keep losing our children, our relatives?”

Survivors could be seen searching for personal items and belongings such as jewellery from the rubble of their apartments.

“The government should provide us with arms to deal with terrorists if their agencies are unable to bring them to book,” said Azam Khan, a Sunni Muslim who said he had taken several of the dead to hospital.
“We will vote for those who eliminate these terrorists. We are not ready to be hoodwinked by empty slogans any more.”

Sindh provincial police surgeon Aslam Pechuho told AFP the death toll had risen to 48 from an overnight 45, with around 200 wounded.

So far hospitals have released only 13 bodies for burial with the rest yet to be formally identified, officials said.

Meanwhile, Pakistani officials say gunmen shot and killed two people as they were returning from a funeral for victims of a massive bombing the day before in the city of Karachi.

Police official Qamar Ahmad says some of the Shiite Muslims attending Monday’s funeral set fire to buses in the neighborhood. After the funeral, when they moved through the same area, gunmen opened fire on the group and wounded several protesters.

Dr. Saleem Memon, who works at the hospital where the wounded were taken, said two men died and another 13 were wounded.

The demonstrations followed a bombing Sunday night in front of a mosque in Karachi that killed 48 people in a Shiite Muslim neighborhood.