Pakistan terror death toll hits 300 From correspondents in Islamabad, Pakistan June 17, 2004
MORE than 300 people have been killed in dozens of terrorist attacks across Pakistan in the past 18 months, the majority in port city of Karachi, the country's interior minister said today.
But Faisal Saleh Hayyat gave no specifics on what constitutes a "terrorist attack."
Most of the violence in Pakistan is between Sunni and Shiite Muslim extremist groups, though there have also been several attacks on foreigners and at least two attempts to assassinate President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the second of which left 17 bystanders dead.
Most of the attacks occurred in Karachi, a port city of 14 million and Pakistan's commercial centre, Hayyat said. Many of these attacks have been blamed on Islamic militants, and many have targeted members of the nation's Shiite Muslim minority.
On June 10, 10 people were killed in an assassination attempt against Karachi's top army commander, who escaped unhurt.
Last month, bombings at two Shiite mosques in Karachi left more than 40 people dead. Also in May, a top Sunni Muslim cleric was killed and two car bombs went off near the US consul-general's residence, killing a police officer and wounding 40 other people.
Hayyat said 330 people were killed in 82 attacks in various Pakistani cities, 62 of them in Karachi.
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has angered Islamic hard-liners by allying his government with the US-led campaign against terrorism in neighbouring Afghanistan.
His decision prompted a series of attacks against Westerners and minority Christians, but the vast majority of the recent attacks have been between Pakistani Muslim groups.
