Bomb at Shiite Muslim shrine in southwestern Pakistan kills 24

While Pakistan flexes its nuclear muscles, jihad violence there continues. From the Canadian Press, with thanks to Twostellas:

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) - A bomb exploded Saturday as Shiite Muslims congregated at a shrine in a remote town in southwestern Pakistan, killing at least 24 people and wounding 16, police said.

Thousands of worshippers were at the shrine of a Shiite saint near the town Naseerabad, about 340 kilometres south of Quetta in restive Baluchistan province, when the bomb went off outside, Mubarak Ali, a local police official, said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility and no indication the attack was linked to clashes between renegade tribesmen and government forces at a town elsewhere in southwestern Baluchistan that left at least 30 people dead this week.

"It was a powerful bomb. There was blood and body parts everywhere," Mehrab Khan, another police official said....

Pakistan has a history of sectarian violence, mostly blamed on rival Sunni and Shiite extremist groups. About 80 per cent of Pakistan's 150 million people are Sunnis and 17 per cent are Shiites.

Most of the Muslims live together peacefully but small groups of militants on both sides stage attacks....