Thousands of angry mourners packed a Shi'ite Muslim cemetery in the Pakistani city of Quetta today as last rites were held for many of the 47 people killed in a suicide attack on a mosque.
A curfew imposed by police and soldiers shortly after yesterday's attack by three suicide bombers was gradually being eased, although tensions between Shi'ites and majority Sunni Muslims remained high.
Local officials said angry protesters seeking revenge for the attack had raided a Sunni Muslim seminary in Quetta and killed a teacher late yesterday.
"The army had evacuated all teachers and pupils from the seminary but the protesters got hold of a teacher and hacked him to death," an official from the provincial home department said.
Earlier, Shi'ites, most from the Hazara tribe, rampaged through Quetta, shooting into the air and torching property, vehicles and the wing of a hospital. There were no reports of violence today, but there was no let-up in the anger.
"This is an unbearable outrage," said Mr Asif Jafferi, who lost a relative in the mosque attack, as verses from the Koran were recited over loudspeakers at Shi'ite mosques across the city.
"It shows the inability of the government to stop such incidents," said another mourner, Manzoor Hussain, whose brother and brother-in-law were killed.
They were attending a sombre funeral for 24 of the victims at a heavily guarded graveyard reserved for the city's Shi'ite community.
Extremists from the Shi'ite and Sunni sects of Islam have a long history of violence in Pakistan, and there have been at least three major sectarian killings so far this year claiming 67 lives. Two were in Quetta and the third in Karachi.
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, returning from a tour of the United States and Europe, told reporters at the airport near Islamabad that he would deal severely with the perpetrators and their associates.
Police in Quetta said three men wheeled a trolley up to the gate of the mosque during yesterday's prayers before pulling guns from under a cover and opening fire on worshippers.
All three had grenades strapped to their waists, and two managed to blow themselves up. The third, who did not, died of wounds sustained when guards opened fire.
Police found about 5 kg of explosives on the trolley. Some commentators have suggested that the mosque bombing may be linked to neighbouring Afghanistan, because Quetta is close to the border.