The Hindu : International : Pakistan mosque blast toll 31

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 03, 2004

International

International

Pakistan mosque blast toll 31

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, OCT. 2. The toll in the Sialkot mosque blast in Punjab province rose to 31 on Saturday, even as authorities were still trying to ascertain the group or individual responsible for the incident.

The police are certain that a suicide bomber, who carried a briefcase into the mosque, was responsible for the explosion. However, there were no clues till this evening about the identity of the person.

"We are keeping terrorism and religious terrorism as the probable cause of the Sialkot tragedy in its investigations," the Punjab Law Minister, Raja Basharat, said in Sialkot.

He said it would be too early to implicate Al-Qaeda or any other group and hold them responsible for the tragedy. "Those who were involved in the riots and torching incidents did not belong to a particular sect, but they were terrorist elements who wanted to destabilise the country," he maintained.

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