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41 Reported Killed in Pakistan Shrine Suicide Attack

Updated

Reports from eastern Pakistan say a pair of suicide bombings outside a shrine in eastern Pakistan has left at least 41 people dead and many more injured.

The explosions struck outside the Sakhi Sarwar shrine in Punjab province's Dera Ghazi Khan district on April 3, as thousands of Sufi Muslim devotees gathered for an annual festival.

A Taliban spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan, said his group carried out the attack "in retaliation for government operations against our people in the northwest."

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said "such cowardly acts of terror clearly demonstrate that the culprits involved neither have any faith nor any belief in human values."

Militants have carried out such attacks in past. Sufis, a minority Muslim group who follow mystical beliefs, are regarded as heretical by hard-liners.

compiled from agency reports

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