A bomb attack killed at least 10 people and wounded 40 at the funeral for a Shi'ite Muslim on Friday (November 21) in the northwest Pakistani town of Dera Ismail Khan.

A foreign news agency quoted NWFP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain as saying that 10 people were killed and up to 30 wounded, though a doctor at the main government hospital put the number of wounded at 40. Witnesses gave conflicting accounts on whether the blast was caused by a suicide bomber or a device planted on the funeral procession's route.

The majority of Pakistan's Muslims are Sunni, but around 15 percent of the 170 million nation are Shi'ite. Thousands of people have been killed in tit-for-tat sectarian violence going back to the 1980s, and earlier this year around 200 people were killed in fighting between Sunni and Shi'ites in the Kurram tribal region.