Bombers hit processions of Shiites in Pakistan

Source New York Times

A teenage boy blew himself up on Tuesday evening while trying to break through heavy security for a Shiite procession here, killing at least 10 people and wounding 79, the police said. A second bomber struck a similar procession in the southern port city of Karachi shortly afterward, killing at least two more people, The Associated Press reported. The Shiites were marking the end of a 40-day mourning period for the martyred Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. In Lahore, the attacker was 14 to 16 years old, the police said, and was carrying a handbag that he said held CDs. When he tried to enter the procession and was about to be searched, he detonated his explosives, said Rao Sardar, the operational chief of the Lahore police. A branch of the Pakistani Taliban, the Qari Hussain Mehsud group, claimed responsibility, according to Geo, a Pakistani television channel.