Market bomb attack kills dozens in Pakistan

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Musa Farman / EPASmoke billows from the scene of a bomb blast in Kirani road area of Quetta, the provincial capital of restive Balochistan province, Pakistan, 16 Febuary 2013.  By Gul Yousufzai, ReutersDozens of people including school children were killed Saturday in a bomb  attack carried out by extremists from Pakistan's Sunni Muslim majority,  police said.

Follow @NBCNewsWorld A spokesman for Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Sunni group,  claimed responsibility for the bomb, which caused casualties  in Quetta's main bazaar, a school and a computer center. Police said  most of the victims were Shiites.

Burned school bags and books were strewn around.

Early Sunday, a Pakistani police official said that 81 people died in the blast, The Associated Press reported.


"The  explosion was caused by an improvised explosive device fitted to a  motorcycle," said Wazir Khan Nasir, deputy inspector general of police  in Quetta.

"This is a continuation of terrorism against Shiites."

"I  saw many bodies of women and children," said an eyewitness at a  hospital. "At least a dozen people were burned to death by the blast."

Most  Western intelligence agencies have regarded the Pakistani Taliban and  al Qaeda as the gravest threat to nuclear-armed Pakistan, a strategic  U.S. ally.

But Pakistani law enforcement officials say Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has become a formidable force.

TensionsBanaras Khan / AFP - Getty ImagesPakistani paramedics work over the dead bodies of bomb blast victims at a hospital in Quetta on February 16, 2013. A remote-controlled bomb targeting Shiite Muslims killed 47 people including women and children and wounded more than 200 in Pakistan's insurgency-hit southwest on Saturday, police and officials said.  AFP PHOTO/Banaras KHANBANARAS KHAN/AFP/Getty ImagesLast  month the group said it carried out a bombing in Quetta that killed  nearly 100 people, one of Pakistan's worst sectarian attacks. Thousands  of Shi'ites protested in several cities after that attack.

Pakistani  intelligence officials say extremist groups, led by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi,  have escalated their bombings and shootings of Shiites to trigger  violence that would pave the way for a Sunni theocracy in U.S.-allied  Pakistan.

More than 400 Shiites were killed in Pakistan last  year, many by hitmen or bombs, and the perpetrators are almost never  caught. Some hardline Shi'ite groups have hit back by killing Sunni  clerics.

The growing sectarian violence has hurt the credibility  of the government, which has already faced criticism ahead of elections  due in May for its inability to tackle corruption and economic  stagnation.

The schism between Sunnis and Shiites developed  after the Prophet Muhammad died in 632 when his followers could not  agree on a successor.

Emotions over the issue are highly potent  even today, pushing some countries, including Iraq five years ago, to  the brink of civil war.

Pakistan is nowhere near that stage but  officials worry that Sunni extremist groups have succeeded in  dramatically ratcheting up tensions and provoking revenge attacks in  their bid to destabilize the country.Sixty-four people including school children died on Saturday in a bomb attack carried out by extremists from Pakistan's Sunni Muslim majority. NBC's Lester Holt reports. Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

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