Islamabad - At least eight people were killed and 23 injured Friday when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a Shia Muslim funeral in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province, officials said. An angry crowd took to the streets after the blast in Dera Ismail Khan, and some people fired guns into the air in the city, which is 300 kilometres south of the provincial capital, Peshawar, and has been the scene of sectarian violence between Shia and Sunni Muslims in the past.
A small crowd also threw stones at police outside the hospital.
"According to the preliminary investigations, it was a suicide attack," provincial police chief Malik Naveed said. "We had deployed police to guard the venue, but the bomber somehow managed to sneak into the crowd."
"So far, eight deaths are confirmed, and 23 people are injured," he added.
Provincial Information Minister Iftikhar Hussain put the death toll at 10.
The funeral was for a young Shia man, Shahid Iqbal, who was gunned down late Thursday.
No one claimed responsibility for the Friday's deadly blast, but the police chief said he suspected Taliban militants based in Pakistan's tribal region could be behind it.
"The terrorists who come from Waziristan are perpetuating such attacks in Dera Ismail Khan," Naveed said. "They are trying to deteriorate the security situation by fuelling sectarian tensions."
Waziristan is the home of the warlord Baitullah Mehsud, who also heads Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (the Taliban Movement in Pakistan), an umbrella organization of militant groups.
Mehsud has been blamed for dozens of suicide attacks across the country over the past year and a half, including one in December that killed former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for another suicide bombing on August 19 at a hospital in Dera Ismail Khan where a crowd of Shia Muslims had gathered after the killing of their local leader by gunmen riding on a motorbike.
