A suspected suicide bombing and gunfire killed at least 29 minority Shi'ite Muslims in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday and gunmen killed at least four more people in an attack on a bus, officials told Reuters. The bombing targeted a procession in the town of Hangu in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) to mark Ashura. Officials reported several blasts. Abdul Rashid, medical superintendent at the Hangu hospital, said 29 people had been confirmed dead there. "We have 29 confirmed dead bodies," he told Reuters. "Some of them have bullet wounds. All of them are Shi'ites." A leader of the Shi'ite procession, Maulana Khurshid Anwar, said a bomb exploded near a stage where he was about to address Shi'ite mourners. Enraged Shi'ites set shops and a bank on fire and fired shots into the air in the town 200 km (125 miles) west of Islamabad, Reuters said. Superintendent Mohammad Ayub, of the Hangu police, said four people died in a shootout during a curfew imposed after the bombing -- one policeman, a soldier, and two civilians. --More 23 08 Local Time 20 08 GMT
