ISLAMABAD — Supporters of a popular moderate cleric mourned his assassination in one of several suicide bombings for which the Taliban claimed responsibility Saturday to retaliate for a Pakistani military offensive against extremists.
But instead of sowing fear and dissension, the attacks appear to be contributing to a growing wave of anti-Taliban sentiment, particularly the bombing at a seminary Friday that killed Sarfraz Naeemi. The cleric had called the militants murderers, condemned suicide attacks as un-Islamic and backed the ongoing operations in the Swat Valley region.
His death sparked a strike that virtually shut down Karachi, the country’s commercial center. About 200 activists of Jamat Ahle Sunnat, a moderate Muslim sect, staged a mock funeral procession for the Taliban, burning one in effigy as they chanted “Down with the Taliban; Taliban, the enemy of Islam; death for the killers of Sarfraz Naeemi.”
In Lahore, where the bombing killed Naeemi and six other people, thousands gathered under tight security for his funeral, surging forward to try to touch his casket as pallbearers carried it to a crypt. The protesters demanded death for the Taliban and their leader, Baitullah Mehsud.
Taliban commander Saeed Hafiz claimed responsibility for the blasts at the seminary, hotel and in Nowshera on behalf of Tehrik-i-Taliban, the group headed by Mehsud, local media reported.
President Asif Ali Zardari earlier addressed the nation and vowed to continue fighting the Taliban “until the end,” calling it a battle for Pakistan’s survival. Later, Parliament approved the budget for the new fiscal year, with a 16 percent increase in the military’s allocation.
