Quetta, Pakistan | AFP | Thursday 10/22/2015 - 19:39 GMT
A suicide bomber blew himself up in a mosque killing at least 10 Shiite minority Muslims and wounding 12 others in a remote southwestern Pakistani town on Thursday, officials said.
The attack took place as Shiites gathered at the mosque to observe the holy month of Moharram in the town of Chalgari in restive Baluchistan, some 170 kilometres (105 miles) southeast of the provincial capital, Quetta.
"At least 10 people were killed and 12 others were wounded after a suicide bomber blew himself up at a Shiite mosque," provincial home minister Sarfraz Bugti told AFP.
Local administration official Mohammad Waseem confirmed the attack and death toll.
Bugti said there were six children between 10 and 12 years old among the dead and that some women had also died.
He added that the death toll may rise.
Waseem said the suspected suicide bomber appeared to be about 18 years old and was wearing a woman's burqa, an all enveloping head-to-toe garment.
Sectarian violence -- in particular that carried out by Sunni militants against Shiites, who make up roughly 20 percent of Pakistan's population of 200 million -- has claimed thousands of lives in the country over the past decade.
Many of the worst atrocities have taken place in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, home to some 200,000 Shiites.
Shiite gatherings and processions during Moharram mark Hussain's martyrdom in the Battle of Karbala, Iraq, in 680 AD.
Hussain is equally revered by Sunnis, but hardliners oppose the public mourning of his martyrdom.
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