At least 15 dead in blast targeting Shias in Pakistan

At least 15 people were killed and dozens injured in a suspected suicide blast targeting Shias in the southern Pakistani city of Jacobabad Friday, police and hospital officials said.

 The attack came with Pakistan on high alert for the mourning days of Ashura, during the holy month of Moharram, a flashpoint for violence in previous years.

 "Many injured and bodies were brought to the Civil Hospital," senior police officer Zafar Iqbal reportedly said, who initially described it as a suicide attack but later said authorities were still investigating.

 Civil Hospital chief Dr Altaf Wagan confirmed that at least 15 bodies and more than 36 injured people had been brought in, and said that more wounded had been shifted to two other hospitals nearby.

 The attack came outside the residence of a local Shia leader as devotees were setting off towards a main procession in the city, some 500 kilometres (300 miles) from Karachi, Iqbal said.

 Witnesses described the wounded being rushed to hospital by ambulance and auto-rickshaw. Reports said there were children among the injured.

 "We were some three kilometres (two miles) from the spot and heard the blast," Jan Odhano, a rights activist in Jacobabad, said.

 "We rushed towards the spot. We saw people running here and there, some were crying and wailing, we could see blood on the clothes of some people."

 Provincial transport minister Mumtaz Jakharani, who was at the hospital, said that 15 to 20 people were "martyred" in the attack.

 He said protesters had gathered at the hospital, with some damaging hospital equipment.

 "The doctors are scared of the agitating people," provincial health minister Jam Mehtab Dahar reportedly said, confirming that at least 15 people had been killed.

 "I call upon the protesters to calm down and help us treat the injured."

 Witnesses said protesters were blocking roads at many spots in the city.

 Dahar confirmed that the injured were also sent to the hospital at the Shahbaz Airbase and the Jacobad Institute of Medical Sciences, with some airlifted to the nearby city of Larkana.

 Pakistan had deployed some 10,000 troops and 6,000 paramilitary members to prevent violence during Moharram.