Sectarian terrorism: 1 killed, 30 injured in bomb blast at Kehror Lal Eisan urs

Police say prior to the urs, posters containing terrorism threats had been on the walls in the area.

MULTAN:

A eunuch was killed and at least 30 people were injured on Tuesday night in a blast at the urs of Kehroz Lal Eisan in Layyah.

The injured were taken to district and tehsil head quarters hospitals. Twelve of them are still reported to be in critical condition and have been taken to Nishtar Hospital in Multan.

Thousands of pilgrims were present at the time the blast occurred.

The deceased was later identified as Muhammad Amin.

SHO Mehar Saeed said the blast occurred a few minutes after a qawali session at the 616th saint’s death anniversary had started.

The blast was followed by a stampede as chaos spread in and around the shrine.

Police said the fragments were recovered from all over the place.

The SHO said a week before the urs began, several posters containing terrorism threats had been pasted on the walls in the area. The posters warned the government for not allowing the urs. Police said the threat was not been taken seriously.

Ghulam Akbar Qureshi, caretaker of the shrine and current successor of Eisan, told The Express Tribune that his family had been receiving death threats for some time. He said he had also received messages against organising the urs.

Earlier, police had said that the blast was a result of a tyre explosion in the mela on the premises.

However, later, after finding fragments from the bomb on the scene, and accounts of the witnesses, they declared it a terrorism attack.

The five day festival that traditionally follows the urs earlier cancelled after the incident. However, on Wednesday Agriculture Minister Ahmed Ali Aulakh visited the shrine and said that the festival will continue.

He said he had visited the shrine to boost the people’s moral.

Pilgrims continued to visit the urs in thousands. Festival will include horse riding and camel shows, majalis, qawali sessions and lectures by religious scholars.

Earlier, on Tuesday, the urs was inaugurated by Aulakh and Qureshi. They washed the mausoleum with rose water.

The urs is being organised after four years. It had been suspended in 2007 following terrorism threats from the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th, 2012.