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Thousands Protest Pakistani Mosque Bombing


Thousands of Pakistani mourners attend a funeral procession for victims of a bombing Friday in Shikarpur, some 500 kilometers (310 miles) north of Pakistan's port city of Karachi, Jan. 31, 2015.
Thousands of Pakistani mourners attend a funeral procession for victims of a bombing Friday in Shikarpur, some 500 kilometers (310 miles) north of Pakistan's port city of Karachi, Jan. 31, 2015.

Thousands of Shi'ite Muslims took to the streets across Pakistan Saturday to protest a powerful bomb blast at a mosque in Sindh province during Friday prayers, killing at least 58 people and wounding more than 50 others, some seriously.

In the city of Shikarpur, the site of the blast, thousands of minority Shi'ite mourners held a mass funeral for the dead. Many non-Shi'ites also took part.

The bombing occurred in the Lakidar area of Shikarpur, around 470 kilometers north of the port city of Karachi.

The Sunni Muslim group Jundallah, a splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack, the latest in a rising tide of sectarian violence in Pakistan.

Sunni Muslim extremists have often targeted religious institutions of Shi'ites who make up a fifth of Pakistan's population.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Friday he is appalled by "such vicious targeting of people on account of their religious affiliation." He called on Pakistan's government to redouble its efforts to protect religious and ethnic minorities.

Hundreds of Shi'ites have been killed in the past two years in the country.

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