Islamabad, Pakistan ? A suicide bomber blew himself up outside the home of a prominent Shiite Muslim cleric Friday, killing the cleric and a bodyguard and triggering a riot in this southern Pakistani city.

Allama Hassan Turabi died of his injuries at a hospital, said Jehangir Mirza, the Sindh province police chief. After the attack, hundreds of his youthful followers set fire to a state-owned gas station and damaged a bank branch and some shops, said local police chief Tahir Naveed.

Pakistan has been blighted for years by attacks blamed on extremist elements among the Sunni and Shiite sects, targeting places of worship and religious leaders. The attacks often lead to rioting.

Authorities deployed extra police and paramilitary forces in several parts of Karachi ahead of Turabi’s funeral late Friday or early today.

The attacker detonated explosives strapped to his body at the gate of Turabi’s house as the cleric was getting into a car. Turabi was the leader of a Shiite party, Islamic Tehreek Pakistan, and a provincial chief for United Action Forum, a hard-line opposition religious coalition.