Car bomb kills 40 at Pakistan religious rally

At least 40 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in Pakistan yesterday when a car bomb exploded at a rally to commemorate an assassinated militant religious leader.

Hours after the attack in the central city of Multan, the interior minister said he would advise provincial governments to ban religious gatherings, except for those at mosques, adding that no banned militant groups would be allowed to continue their activities.

The bomb exploded in a crowd of mourners leaving an overnight rally by several thousand people to mark the first anniversary of the shooting of Sunni Muslim militant Azam Tariq, head of the outlawed Sipah-e-Sahaba (Soldiers of Mohammad's Companions).

The attack came just days after a suicide bomber killed 30 people at a minority Shi'ite Muslim mosque in the eastern city of Sialkot on October 2 and Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said it could have been a sectarian act of revenge.