Shiites riot for 2nd day after funeral

SIALKOT, Pakistan -- Thousands of minority Shiite Muslims rampaged through this eastern Pakistan city for the second straight day Saturday, burning a police station and the mayor's office after a mass funeral for 31 people killed by a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque.

Investigators questioned survivors of Friday's blast and sifted through the carnage at the Zainabia mosque in Sialkot for clues but said it's not yet clear whether al-Qaida had a hand in the attack.

Hundreds of army troops and police commandos patrolled the streets but initially struggled to contain rioting by youths that broke out after about 15,000 Shiite Muslim mourners, beating their chests and wailing, had gathered for a mass funeral for victims of the bombing.

The rioters attacked the office of Mayor Mian Javed, but he was not inside at the time. They also burned a record room of a court, a police station and several motorcycles parked there. There were no reports of injuries.

Youths shouted slogans against the government of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the United States and the perpetrators of the attack. By late afternoon, security forces had brought the situation under control, and the city was quiet.

The Pakistani government offered a reward of $175,000 for information leading to the identity of Friday's suicide bomber, as police investigators searched for clues at the mosque and questioned witnesses.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, and officials declined to speculate on who was responsible.

"Police and other security agencies are still investigating, and at this stage I cannot say whether al-Qaida was involved in this act of terrorism," provincial law minister Raja Basharat Elahi told The Associated Press.

Police quoted witnesses as saying the attacker strode into the mosque carrying the bomb in a briefcase, and the moment he opened it, it exploded, killing 16 people on the spot. Fifteen others died later.

Elahi said 29 of the bodies had been identified.

Farooqi was accused in a string of terrorist attacks in Pakistan, including the kidnapping and beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002, and two assassination attempts against Musharraf in December 2003 that killed 17 other people.

Farooqi was allegedly part of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militant group, blamed for a string of attacks on Shiites, including two bombings of mosques in the volatile southern city of Karachi in May that killed more than 40 people.

In the three years since Musharraf threw Pakistan's support behind the U.S.-led war on terror, Islamic militants, often linked to al- Qaida, have launched repeated attacks against the government and Western targets.

Violence has also been directed at Shiites, who make up about 20 percent of Pakistan's 150 million people, most of whom are Sunni Muslims.

Although the vast majority live together peacefully, there are extremist elements in both sects who launch attacks.

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