India, Pakistan suspend Wagah border ceremony after suicide bomb kills 55

LAHORE, Nov 3 (agencies): India and Pakistan have suspended a daily military ritual on their main land border crossing after a suicide attack that killed dozens of people, the first time the colourful parade has been called off since the two countries went to war in 1971.

India's home ministry said India's Border Security Force agreed to a Pakistani request to suspend the flag-lowering ceremony to allow mourning.

At least 55 people were killed and more than 100 wounded Sunday by the explosion that ripped through a carpark about 500 metres (yards) from Pakistan's border gate just as hundreds of people left the popular daily performance.

Every day, thousands of Indians and Pakistanis flock to watch the elaborate show where border security officials kick their feet high and grimace in mock aggression in a peacock-like display of patriotism.

The crowds pack out bleachers set up on either side of the each country's border gates, which are adorned with large, facing portraits of their founding fathers, Mahatma Gandhi on the Indian side and Mohammed Ali Jinnah on the Pakistani side.

"It is the first time we have suspended the ceremony after the war. The ceremony was not suspended even during Kargil," India's home ministry spokesman K.S. Dhatwalia said on Monday, referring to a 1999 conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours in the town of Kargil triggered by a Pakistan army incursion.

India and Pakistan last fought a fully fledged war in 1971, when Bangladesh seceded from Pakistan.

Two kilometres (1.24 miles) before the border, police stopped tourists from entering the area on Monday. Four buses carrying 180 people including students on a trip from Agra to see the border ceremonies were stopped and decided to go back.

Meanwhile:  Pakistan was on high alert Monday for the mourning processions of Ashura, a flashpoint for sectarian violence, a day after the country's deadliest bombing in more than a year killed 55 people.

A suicide bomber struck at the main Pakistan-India border crossing on Sunday, causing carnage among crowds leaving the colourful daily ceremony to close the Wagah frontier post, near the eastern city of Lahore.

The explosion, which wounded more than 120, was a rare attack in Punjab, Pakistan's richest and most populous province and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's powerbase.

At least two different factions of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have claimed the attack, the first major strike since the army launched an offensive against militant strongholds in the tribal northwest in June.

The Wagah ceremony is one of Pakistan's few genuine tourist attractions, drawing people from all walks of life.

Like many Pakistanis who attend the event, eyewitness Nawaz Khan had gone with family members, visiting from the northwestern city of Peshawar.

As he returned with the children, he said, he saw a "young boy" running towards the gate, who was stopped by a Ranger.

Security forces across the country were bracing on Monday for possible attacks as Shiite Muslims mark Ashura, the anniversary of the death of Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed.

Thousands of minority Shiites will take to the streets for mourning processions and the occasion has been marred by sectarian bloodshed in recent years.

Around 10,000 police and paramilitary Rangers have been deployed in Islamabad and its twin city Rawalpindi, officials said, and some mobile phone services have been shut down.