Pakistan death toll reaches 50
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A wounded boy is brought to a local hospital in Quetta after gunmen opened fire on worshippers.
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LAHORE, Pakistan (CNN) -- Government officials have raised the toll from an attack by gunmen on Shiite Muslim worshippers in southwest Pakistan, saying at least 50 people were killed and 140 wounded.
Six of those killed in Tuesday's attack in the city of Quetta were police officers and two were attackers, the officials said.
Quetta has been placed under a curfew and President Pervez Musharraf has ordered an investigation into Tuesday's attack. Community leaders have said many civilians were killed by police in crossfire.
The procession, which included women and children, was part of a celebration marking Ashura, the 10th day of the holy month of Muharram. (Full story)
The shootings triggered a stampede in the crowd of hundreds, although there was no word of deaths resulting from the stampede.
Army and paramilitary troops have been called in to provide additional security. No arrests have been made and police have been searching for an unknown number of gunmen.
Sectarian violence between extremist Sunni and Shiite groups has been responsible for many deaths in Pakistan.
Government officials Wednesday also said 13 persons were killed and 50 others injured when a short-circuited electric line created a panic and stampede in a crowded Shiite mosque near Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan.
The Quetta attacks came on the same day that a series of deadly explosions killed many Shiite worshippers in Iraq -- in Baghdad and the Shiite holy city of Karbala. (Full story)
There was no immediate evidence Tuesday's attacks in Pakistan and Iraq were connected.
Pakistani soldiers try to control the crowd after Tuesday's attack.
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Quetta was the site of one of the worst acts of sectarian violence in years in Pakistan when armed militants stormed a Shiite mosque last July, killing more than 50 people. The attackers tossed grenades and shot at worshippers during Friday prayers.
Authorities said they believed a Sunni extremist group was possibly behind that attack.
Many Sunnis and Shiites live peacefully together in Pakistan. Sunnis outnumber Shiites by about a 4-to-1 ratio. Muslims make up 97 percent of Pakistan's population.
Security had been stepped up nationwide in Pakistan for Muharram, the first month of the Islamic year.
Ashura is the holiest day for Shiites and commemorates the seventh century death of Imam Hussein -- a top Shiite saint and the grandson of the prophet Muhammad -- who died in 680.
-- CNN Islamabad Bureau Chief Ash-har Quraishi and Producer Syed Mohsin Naqvi contributed to this report
