QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) – Shiite mourners beat their chests and wailed at a funeral Saturday for 41 victims of a suicide attack at a mosque in southwest Pakistan that raised fears of sectarian violence with majority Sunni Muslims.

Soldiers protected by armored personnel carriers patrolled Quetta while the enraged Shiite Muslims buried their dead at a graveyard not far from the mosque that was attacked a day earlier.

The prayer-time attack on the packed mosque killed 47 people Friday, sending Shiites on a rampage through this southwestern city. The government called in troops and imposed a curfew to try to quell the violence.

Scores more were wounded in the attack, one of the bloodiest in a long series of assaults on the Shiite Muslim minority.

Leaders of Pakistan’s Shiites railed against the government, accusing President Pervez Musharraf of not doing enough to protect them. The victims were mostly Hazara Shiite Muslims, identified by the Hazara area of Afghanistan from where they originated before settling in Pakistan.

No one has taken responsibility for Friday’s bloodshed, but blame has fallen on extremist Sunni Muslim groups responsible for past attacks. While most Sunni and Shiite Muslims live in peace, militant extremist groups from both sects have emerged in recent years and they routinely attacked each other. Most of the victims, however, have been Shiite Muslims.

Musharraf promised to take “the toughest action” possible against the culprits.

“They are illiterate and wild elements, who are not only causing damage to the country, but they are also bringing a bad name to Islam,” Musharraf said Saturday after returning to Pakistan at the end of a four-nation tour.

Musharraf said it’s possible the attackers could have come from outside the country, adding that “if there is any external hand in this incident, we will find out.”

The Taliban were accused of massacring hundreds of Hazaras in Afghanistan during their rule, in retaliation for the killing of an estimated 2,000 Taliban by Hazara Muslims in northern Afghanistan in 1997. The Taliban government was overthrown by a U.S.-led war in 2001.

On Saturday, Sunni Muslim mosques and religious schools in Quetta were under heavy guard for fear of retaliatory attacks. Schools were closed and shops throughout the city of 1.2 million people were shuttered.

Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said two suicide bombers were killed inside the mosque and another attacker was killed in a shootout with security guards outside. A fourth man is in custody.

Hours after Friday’s blast, police found two bombs in tin canisters near the main wall of the mosque. Both bombs were defused by bomb disposal experts, an intelligence official and police sources said in Quetta. It was unclear how long the bombs had been there, police official Abdul Hai said.

Other witnesses said the grenades were thrown into the mosque.

Friday’s attack was the third in slightly more than one month against Hazara Muslims in Quetta. Last month 11 policemen, most of them Hazaras, were killed in Quetta.

AP-ES-07-05-03 0424EDT

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