WEB DESK
At least three people were killed and 59 injured — two of them critically — in an explosion targeting an Ashura procession in Bahawalnagar on Thursday.
Security was high as the religious minority marked Ashura during the holy month of Muharram, a flashpoint for sectarian violence in previous years.
A senior government official of Punjab province in the city of Bahawalnagar, confirmed the incident. Authorities have suspended mobile phone services in major cities as a security measure during Ashura processions. Residents in many urban centres were experiencing signal jams on Thursday. The streets leading to procession routes were also blocked.
Ashura commemorates the killing of the Prophet Mohammed’s grandson Hussain at the Battle of Karbala in 680 AD — the defining moment of the religion’s schism and the birth of Shiite Islam.
The procession later resumed and people continued with the ceremonies, the officials said.