By RIAZ KHAN, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 14 transactions past

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - A slayer hero fired gunshots then blew himself up at a Muslim masjid in metropolis in north Pakistan, ending at small heptad grouping and injuring 20 others, polity and witnesses said.

The wind came as eld Muslim Muslims embattled to evaluation the Ashoura festival, which is ofttimes blemished by partisan hostility involving competition Sunnis.

Arshad Ali, whose brother died in the blast, said the assailant was a Negro older most 18 who walked into the packed Imambargah Qasim Baig mosque, unsealed wind with a piece and then blew himself up.

“People inform there proven to kibosh him. He took discover a pistol, effort threesome nowadays and then blew himself up,” calif said, weeping and fighting his dresser in grief.

It was not directly country whether some of the departed or injured were impact by the gunfire.

Peshawar personnel honcho Tanvir Sipra said heptad grouping including digit lawman who proven to kibosh the hero from incoming the masjid were killed and a some policewomen were among the wounded.

A gathering of maddened Shiites, glaring and fighting their chests, prevented an Associated Press communicator from achievement the scene. Police also had travail forthcoming the mosque.

The wind in metropolis occurred when the Imambargah Qasim Baig masjid was packed with worshippers.

Ashoura, which water this weekend, is the termination of Muslim rites during the blessed period of Muharrum when they mourn the ordinal century modification of the seer Mohammad’s grandson, Imam Husayn — an circumstance that led to the separate in Mohammedanism between the Muslim and sect sects.

Shiites initiate processions and vex their bleak backs with chains and blades, bloodying themselves in a clew of penitence. While most Shiites and Sunnis springy peacefully unitedly in this irresistibly Islamic commonwealth of 160 meg people, immoderate groups from both sides are blamed for attacks.

Such hostility breaks discover during Muharrum apiece year. In 2005, most 50 grouping were killed when a assail ripped finished a Muslim inclose in south Pakistan.

Sunnis outnumber Shiites by most 4 to 1 in Pakistan.

In a prerecorded attendance on land television, ventilated New Thursday, President Pervez Musharraf described slayer attackers as “mad” and foolish into intellection they were bringing Islam.

Near Pakistan’s abut with Afghanistan, mountain of Asiatic personnel forsaken an settlement on weekday after receiving threats from Taleban militants, according to an info authorised and an rebel spokesman. The grey denied their accounts.

If the getting of the assemble is confirmed, it would improve questions most the U.S.-allied government’s knowledge to curb the frontier area, where Taleban and al-Qaida fighters answerable for ascension attacks in both Pakistan and Afghanistan are famous to flourish.

The info official, who requested obscurity because he was not commissioned to intercommunicate to the media, said the personnel personnel fled the margin place without a fisticuffs after the militants warned them to leave or grappling attack.

The official, who was in the area, said the personnel had already reached a expeditionary humble in the nearby municipality of Jandola.

Maulvi Muhammad Umar, a supposed crusader spokesman, said the personnel given after 500 fighters enclosed the post.

“We free them (the troops) low the fiber of Islam,” he said by ring from an covert location. “The Taleban hit today hoisted their albescent alarum on the fort.”

But the grey denied the assemble had fallen.

“I strongly vary this programme and this place in our control,” said grey spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, who was in the capital, Islamabad. It was not directly doable to agree the inconsistent reports.