Summary The blast took place at the parking area of the imambargah in Gracy Line area.
RAWALPINDI (Dunya News/ Agencies) – At least three persons including a Station House Officer died and several others injured in a blast near Imambargah in Gracy Lane here on Tuesday.
The strike took place in the Gracy Lines neighbourhood of the garrison city of Rawalpindi, which neighbours the capital Islamabad, as worshippers prayed inside the mosque, senior police official Akhtar Laleka said.
"The bomber came on a motorcycle and detonated himself when intercepted by police at the first checkpoint," he added.
The bomb destroyed several motorcycles and damaged nearby shops, said an AFP photographer at the scene.
Hospital officials said at least three people were killed and 14 others were wounded.
"We have three bodies and 14 wounded people at our hospital," Asif Qadir Mir, chief of the local government hospital, told AFP.
There has been a rise in sectarian violence in Pakistan after several deadly clashes between Sunni and Shiite Muslim groups near Islamabad in November.
Allama Nasir Abbas from Islam s minority branch was killed late Sunday in Lahore, the capital of Punjab province, after addressing a religious gathering.
On November 19, gunmen killed a senior Shiite university director along with his driver in Lahore, while another Shiite leader and his guard were killed in Karachi in early December.
Three days later, Shamsur Rehman Muawiya, chief of the Sunni extremist organisation Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jammat for Punjab province, was killed in Lahore.
Pakistan is rife with sectarian clashes, with Sunni militant groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban often attacking gatherings by Shiites, who constitute some 20 percent of the country s population.
President Mamnoon Hussain and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif strongly condemned the blast.
On the other hand, Punjab CM Shahbaz Sharif has taken the notice of the incident and sought a report from the authorities concerned.
A security high alert has also been issued for the capital city of Islamabad following the brutal suicide attack in Rawalpindi.
