Dozens killed in Pakistan

A bomb exploded in Karachi during a celebration of Mohammad's birthday.

Dawn reports at least 56 killed.

At least 56 people were killed and more then 100 injured when a bomb exploded at Karachi's Nishtar Park Tuesday evening when faithfuls were offering Mughrib (Evening Prayers) after attending a mammoth meeting to celebrate the birthday of the Holy Prophet. Jinnah hospital confirms 27 dead bodies and dozens injured. Civil hospital was also flooded with injured people and dead bodies. Other major hospitals including Liaquat National hospital and Abbasi Shaheed hospital have also received dead bodies and injured persons. The death toll was rising as the condition of many injured was critical, hospital sources said. There was stampede and angry crowed pelted stones, damaged and torched vehicles and there was complete chaos in a vast area around the park which is near the mausoleum of the Quaid-e-Azam.

The event was sponsored by Jammat Ahle Sunnat, a Sunni group, and one of the religious organizations in Pakistan. The leader of this group was killed in the explosion, along with several other prominent Sunni clerics.

Haji Hanif Billo, Mulana Abbas Qadri, Hafiz Muhammad Taqi & Iftikhar Bhatti were among the top notch leaders of Sunni Tahreeq / Jamaat Ahl-e-Sunnat who were martyred in the bomb blast at Nishtar park tuesday evening, hospital sources said. Mulana Shah Turabul Huq Qadri, a senior leader of the organizing committee was injured but is handling the post' explosion crises with the help of his aides and in consultation with the authorities.

The Ahle Sunnat website says this:

This is to inform all the Muslims around the world, with sad demise, that a huge bomb explosion occurred at Nishter Park during the Annual Eid-e-Melad-un-Nabi SalAllahoAlaihiWasallam conference. Janab Haji Hanif Billo Saheb is dead in this explosion and our many scholars/leaders are injured seriously. However, Hazrat Allama Maulana Syed Shah Turab-ul-Haq Qadri Saheb is fine and doing well. Please keep remember all of the victims in your prayers and recite Surah-e-Fateha and Qull Shareef for the dead persons.

No group has claimed responsibility for this attack yet. However, it may have been carried out a rival Sunni group.

The Ahle Sunnat comes out of the Brelvis tradition, which originated in India at the end of the 1800s. The Deobandis, another Sunni tradition, are rivals of the Brelvis. This paragraph briefly describes their origins.

The next important milestone in the history of the evolution of madrassas in South Asia came in 1866 with the founding of Darul Uloom at a small village called Deoband. The founding of Darul Uloom at Deoband left far reaching impact on the evolution of Islam and the future systems of all madrassas in South Asia. It permanently divided the Hanafis into two clear sects: Brelvis and Deobandis. The majority of ulema reconciled with the British Raj and accepted its authority. They were later called the Brelvis. A small number of them found fault with the Indian Islam for all the problems of the Indian Muslims and decided to purify it. They were the founders of the Darul Uloom at Deoband and later came to be known as the Deobandis.

In Pakistan, the Brelvis like Ahle Sunnat have a larger number of followers, but they tend to be concentrated in the poorer classes. The Deobandis, though smaller, are more urban, and tend to have more support in the government.

Both groups think the others do not represent true Islam. However, the Deobandis believe the Brelvis were tainted with Hinduism, and are more purest in their beliefs. They belief Islam should be cleansed of groups like the Brelvis. This bent for purity found common cause with the Wahabbis, and this blend played a role in the creation of the Taliban.

The terrorist groups that Pakistan supports in Kashmir, or at the very least looks away from, are Deobandi groups. The Ahle Sunnat are not supportive of terrorism in Kashmir, and so may have created enemies in this tension.

One such Deobandi terrorist group is Lashkar-e-Taiba, the "Army of the Pure." The LeT has carried out numerous attacks in Kashmir and India. For that reason, it doesn't seem like LeT's style to carry out this large an attack against Muslims in Pakistan.

I honestly don't know who the mostly likely culprit might be, but this attack does seem to be a case of the Religion of Peace turning on its own.

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I first saw mention of this on Michelle Malkin's blog.

The Counterterrorism Blog points out a "Shia cleric in Karachi survived a bomb attack just days ago". These Deobandi groups don't like Shias either. Perhaps someone is getting carried away in their zeal.

An AP article says "Tuesday's explosion was Pakistan's deadliest since March 19, 2005."