Pakistani gunmen kill 10 in attack at mosque on Muslim holiday

An attack on a Sunni Muslim mosque Friday in Quetta, Pakistan, left at least 10 people dead and another 24 wounded, just one day after a suicide bomber there killed an estimated 37 people.

The attack in the southwestern city came as most Pakistanis celebrated Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan.

"Four gunmen opened fire when people were coming out of the mosque after saying Eid prayers," Bashir Ahmad Brohi, a senior local police official, told Agence France Presse.

Brohi said a former Pakistan Peoples Party provincial minister, Ali Madad Jatak, was in the mosque and could have been the target.

"But we are not sure at the moment and are investigating," he said, adding that Jatak escaped unhurt even though bullets hit his car.

Nawaz Sharif, prime minister of Pakistan, had ordered to increase security across the country for the duration of Eid only hours earlier.

Pakistan has experienced a rash of deadly attacks since Sharif took office at the beginning of June, sparking criticism that the government doesn't have a coherent plan to fight the growing problem of violent extremism in the country.

Quetta is the capital of Baluchistan province, home to both Islamic militants and separatists who have been waging a low-level insurgency against the government for decades. More than 40,000 civilians and security personnel have been killed in the conflict, an attempt to end Pakistan's alliance with the U.S. and enforce Islamic law.

The renewed violence in Quetta comes amid an alert issued by the U.S. State Department ordering all non-essential staff to leave its consulate in Lahore, the country's second largest city, after it received threats of an attack, with the department also warning U.S. citizens not to travel to Pakistan.

The announcement follows a global travel warning which discourages U.S. citizens from traveling to mostly Muslim-majority countries as threats of an impending al-Qaeda terrorist attack alerted U.S. security officials.

The personnel pullout at the Lahore consulate was a precautionary measure and wasn't related to the recent closures of numerous U.S. diplomatic missions in the Muslim world, two U.S. officials said.

Thursday's bombing claimed the lives of several senior police officers who had been at the funeral of a fellow officer. The attack also wounded 50 people, including children attending the funeral.

"The security sitatuation in Pakistan is extremely tense and extremely high," said Al Jazeera's Imtiaz Tyab, reporting from Islamabad. "The threat here is frankly quite high [but] the U.S. State Department hasn't clarified exactly what those threats are."

The suicide bomber was wearing a jacket packed with ball bearings and shrapnel, a member of the bomb squad said.

Mohammad Hafiz, a policeman, spoke of the horror he witnessed after the explosion. 

"I was inside the mosque and we were lining up for the funeral prayers when a big blast took place," he said.

"I came out and saw injured and dead bodies lying on the ground. I have no words to explain what I've seen. It was horrible."

It is not clear who is responsible for the attacks.

Source: Al Jazeera and wire services