ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, (Reuters) – A suicide bomber  blew himself up outside a Shi’ite Muslim hall in the Pakistani  part of disputed Kashmir yesterday, killing at least 5 people,  police said.

The blast in Muzaffarabad city demonstrated the challenges  facing U.S. ally Pakistan, which is struggling against al  Qaeda-linked militants and is under pressure from Washington to  help stabilise Afghanistan, where a Taliban insurgency is  raging.

The explosion went off at the end of a procession for  Ashura, the Shi’ite calendar’s biggest event. A witness said he  saw body parts of the bomber on the street. At least 30 people  were wounded, police said.

Security has been increased across the country for Ashura, a  flashpoint for attacks by Sunni militants in recent years.

Earlier yesterday, Presi-dent Asif Ali Zardari said he would  defend democracy in Pakistan. He also dismissed speculation he  might not survive politically.

Speaking on the second anniversary of the assassination of  his wife, former premier Benazir Bhutto, Zardari suggested he  had no intention of resigning after the possibility of  corruption charges against his close aides weakened him.

“If anyone casts an evil eye on democracy, we will gouge out  their eyes,” he told supporters in Bhutto’s hometown of Naudero.

Violence has intensified since July 2007, when the army  cleared out militants from a radical mosque in Islamabad. Victims have included Bhutto, who was killed after returning  home from self-imposed exile.

In the Kashmir incident, policeman Adnan Khan, who was on  duty outside the hall, said the explosion was a suicide bombing.

“The bomber was with a small procession that was coming  towards the Imambargah (hall) and when he saw people being  searched, he set off his explosives,” he told Reuters.

A blast also occurred at the end of a similar procession in  Pakistan’s commercial capital Karachi, wounding 15 people,  police said.

In the Kurram region near the Afghan border, a district  official and five relatives were killed when militants blew up  his house, police said.

Zardari is unpopular and the militants show no sign of  wavering in their bid to topple the government. But many  Pakistanis and the military are united in the view that the  insurgency must be crushed.

The army had not been cracking down on militants, which it  had supported in the fight against Soviet occupation of  Afghanistan in the 1980s. The Afghan Taliban are also seen as  leverage against the influence of enemy India in Afghanistan.

But the Pakistani Taliban turned their guns on their former  army patrons. And their harsh interpretation of Islamic rule —  including public whippings and hangings — angered Pakistanis.

The United States, grappling with an insurgency in  Afghanistan, is pushing Pakistan hard to root out militants who  plot attacks inside Afghanistan, and has also intensified  pilotless drone attacks in northwest Pakistan.

The death toll in the latest drone raid, carried out on  Saturday evening in the militant hub of North Waziristan, rose  to 13 yesterday, security officials said.

Pakistan officially objects to the drone strikes, saying  they violate its sovereignty and the civilian casualties they  sometimes inflict inflame public anger.

U.S. officials say the strikes are carried out under an  agreement with Pakistan that allows its leaders to decry them in  public.