Suicide blast kills 10 in Pakistan, injures dozens

Islamabad, Dec 27 : At least 10 people were killed and dozens injured in a suicide bombing that ripped through a gathering of Shia Muslims in the disputed Kashmir region Sunday, officials said.

The suicide bomber detonated his explosives in a procession of Shia Muslims in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

"When the volunteers spotted the suicide bomber and challenged him, he blew himself up," local religious leader Maulvi Kifayat told Geo television.

Murtaza Gilani, the regional minister for housing, said 10 people had died while more than 50 were injured.

Both Pakistan and India lay claim to Himalayan region of Kashmir and have fought three wars since their independence from Britain in 1947.

Pakistan has a long history of violence between majority Sunnis and minority Shias. Sunni Muslims make up about 80 percent of Pakistan's more than 150 million people.

Separately, an explosion near a Shia procession in the southern port city of Karachi injured over 30 people, Geo television reported. The nature of the blast was not clear.