Karachi, Pakistan — Thousands of angry Shiite Muslims marched in the Pakistani city of Karachi on Saturday as last rites were held for a leading cleric killed by a suicide bomber.
Allama Hassan Turabi, a Shiite leader, scholar and member of the main Islamist alliance, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, died Friday with a nephew when a suicide bomber blew himself up in front of the cleric’s house.
More than 5,000 mourners, beating their chests and shouting religious slogans, prayed around Mr. Turabi’s coffin. A group of young mourners scuffled with the police and tried to attack a police van during the funeral procession. Gunfire was heard, but no casualties were reported.
Shiite leaders called for three days of mourning, and main markets, business centers and gas stations were closed. The police stepped up security at mosques, Western consulates and fast-food franchises across the city amid fears of violence.
The motive for the attack is still unknown, and no group immediately claimed responsibility for the killing, though the police said it bore the hallmarks of Sunni Muslim militants.
“We have not come to any conclusion yet, but one key focus of the investigation is L. J.,” said a senior police investigator, Niaz Ahmad Khosso, referring to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, an anti-Shiite group that includes members who are thought to have ties to Al Qaeda. “This is because the explosives used are similar to those used in at least three previous L. J. attacks,” he said.
The police said the suicide bomber had more than five pounds of plastic explosives strapped to his body, but that he blew himself up only after an accomplice threw a grenade that did not explode.
Mr. Turabi had survived an assassination attempt in April.