Pakistan Suicide Bombing Kills Moderate Cleric

One of Pakistan’s most prominent anti-Taliban clerics was killed today in a suicide bomb attack, the Times of London reports. Sarfraz Ahmed Naeemi, who supported the Pakistan army’s campaign in the Swat Valley, died on the way to the hospital after an explosion at his Islamic college in Lahore. “There was blood and several people were crying in pain,” Naeemi’s son said.

Another attack around the same time killed three people in a Nowshera mosque. Authorities say the bombings are the Taliban’s revenge against their opponents; Naeemi last month established a 22-group alliance against the Taliban, and he appeared to be the target of today's attack. “It could not be an act of a Muslim to carry out an attack in a mosque,” a police chief said, denouncing the violence.
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