KARACHI, Pakistan, May 31 (UPI) -- Police shot dead three protesters in Karachi late Monday after a blast earlier in the day at a Shiite mosque killed 16 people in Pakistan's largest city.
Pasban-e-Aza, an organization representing Pakistan's Shiite minority, said police opened fire at protesters near the Hussaini Blood Bank where Shiites were collecting blood for those killed in the blast earlier Monday.
Karachi police chief Syed Kamal Shah confirmed the clash but said police was returning fire. "So far, we do not know if anybody was killed. Some were injured.
Hospital officials said police had fatally shot three protesters.
Shah said police protesters were torching vehicles, gas stations and shops in several Karachi neighborhoods and at some places they also fired at the police.
Private television channels showed police and people on rooftops exchanging fire.
Officials in the federal capital, Islamabad, said the government may impose emergency security measures in Karachi to restore law and order.
Earlier, police said a bomb went off about 7:50 p.m. at a Shiite mosque in Karachi while worshippers were saying their evening prayers.
The blast was so powerful that it brought down part of the Ali Raza mosque on Karachi's main M.A. Jinnah road.
Karachi, a city of 15 million, has been plagued by religious and ethnic violence for more than a decade.
Earlier Monday, at least 18 rockets were fired at Education Minister Zobaida Jalal's residence in southwestern Balochistan province.
On Sunday, a prominent Sunni scholar was ambushed and killed in Karachi while driving out of his home.
