Blasts at Pakistan Sufi Sakhi Sarwar shrine 'kill 30'

Suicide attackers have killed at least 41 people and wounded many more at a shrine in Pakistan, police say.

The explosions struck near the Sakhi Sarwar shrine in Punjab, as Sufi Muslim devotees gathered for an annual three-day festival.

Sufis, a minority Muslim group who follow mystical beliefs, are regarded as heretical by hardliners.

No group has so far said it carried out the attacks, but Taliban militants have attacked Sufi shrines in the past.

Last October, a suicide bombing at another shrine in Punjab province left six people dead.

And earlier in the year, a suicide attack on a Lahore shrine killed at least 42 people, making it the most deadly such attack on record.

The latest blasts hit near the Sakhi Sarwar shrine in Dera Ghazi Khan district, and devotees were reportedly among the dead and wounded.

"We have recovered 41 bodies so far," police officer Zahid Hussain Shah told AFP news agency.

"Both were suicide attackers, they came on foot and blew themselves up when police on duty stopped them," he said.

Thousands of people had been marking the annual festival of Urs at the time of the blasts.

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