(ROUGH CUT ONLY - NO REPORTER NARRATION)<br/> <br />Thousands of mourners on Monday (March 4) attended funeral prayers for seven victims, a day after a suspected suicide bomber attacked Shi'ite Muslims as they were leaving a mosque in Pakistan's commercial capital Karachi, killing at least 45 people.<br/> <br />Around 149 were wounded. Doctors said the death toll could rise because many of the wounded were in a critical condition.<br/> <br />The funeral prayers were offered at a Shi'ite mosque in the central district of Karachi.<br/> <br />The blast was seen as another signal that Sunni militants are escalating sectarian attacks.<br/> <br />Military offensives and U.S. drone strikes against the Taliban in Pakistan have reduced the number of suicide attacks on government and military targets over the past year.<br/> <br />But Sunni groups, most prominently the al Qaeda-linked Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), have escalated attacks against Shi'ites, who they believe are non-Muslims.
