Killing of Sunni Cleric Spurs Riots in Pakistan

KARACHI, Pakistan —  Thousands of Sunni Muslims rampaged through this southern Pakistani city Sunday, ransacking property and stoning vehicles after unidentified gunmen killed an influential pro-Taliban cleric.

Enraged by the drive-by shooting of Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, rioters set fire to banks, shops, a police station and a KFC fast-food restaurant, and traded gunfire with security forces, leaving more than a dozen people injured.

Tens of thousands of mourners later gathered for the evening funeral, where police and rangers numbered 15,000. Security forces sparked more anger when they fired warning shots over the mourners’ heads to disperse the crowd.

Shamzai, in his 70s, had met Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and was a strong supporter of Afghanistan’s former Taliban government.

He was a fervent critic of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s support of the U.S.-led war on terrorism, and he strongly opposed the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The soft-spoken cleric was shot dead as he traveled in a pickup truck to his Sunni religious school.

Witnesses told police that as many as six gunmen riding in two cars and on a motorcycle opened fire on Shamzai’s vehicle, wounding one of his sons, a nephew, his driver and a police bodyguard.

No one claimed responsibility for the shooting, which Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali condemned as a “dastardly act of terrorism.”

In the riots, Sunni students, some shouting slogans against rival Shiite Muslims, took to the streets. Paramilitary forces were deployed to protect Shiite mosques amid fears of sectarian violence.

The attack came three weeks after a suicide bomber killed at least 14 worshipers at a Shiite mosque in Karachi, and days after two car bombings near the U.S. consul’s residence that killed one person and injured at least 25.

Nearly 80% of the people in this Islamic country are Sunnis and live peacefully with minority Shiites, but radical groups on both sides often launch deadly attacks against members of the other sect.