Pakistan police arrest mosque attack suspects

Relatives grieve by a dead worshipper

Police in Pakistan are reported to have arrested a number of suspected extremists in connection with the killing of at least 10 worshippers at a mosque in Rawalpindi.

Senior police official Malik Asif Hayat told the AFP news agency 15 Sunni Muslim suspects were being held.

President Pervez Musharraf says the attack is the work of groups opposed to his war on terrorism.

The attack, on Tuesday, was the first incident of this kind since General Musharraf announced a crackdown on Islamic extremist and sectarian groups last month.

Some reports say those arrested are from a banned Sunni group, Sipah-e-Sahaba.

(More on Sipah-e-Sahaba)

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Policy distraction

Police have increased security around mosques in Rawalpindi.

President Musharraf condemned the attack in a statement issued late on Tuesday.

"Groups opposed to the government's policy of fighting against terrorism are out to distract it" from pursuing the policy, he said.

Thousands have died in sectarian violence

Police say three gunmen driving past the mosque sprayed worshippers attending evening prayers with bullets.

Fourteen people were also injured in the attack which targeted a group of Shia worshippers outside the Shah-Najam mosque in Rawalpindi.

"It was a sudden firing and many of us immediately lay on the floor, " Anjum Abbass told Reuters news agency.

Mr Abbass was one of those wounded in the firing.

Pakistan's Interior Secretary Tasneem Noorani told the BBC's Urdu Service the shooting appeared to be sectarian in nature.

Shia minority

More than 2,000 people have been killed in the past decade in sectarian violence in Pakistan, where Sunni Muslims form the majority.

Shias make up about 20% of the population.

The authorities in Pakistan launched a crackdown on sectarian groups after a ban on five militant groups was announced by President Musharraf last month.