PESHAWAR: The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility today for a bombing against a Shiite Muslim procession in Karachi earlier in the week that killed 44 people.

The Pakistani Taliban have rarely claimed any attacks in Pakistan's largest city, and many analysts believe the group has spared Karachi in the past because its militants used the city as a haven to rest and raise money.

A Taliban spokesman, Asmatullah Shaheen, told The Associated Press over phone from an undisclosed location that the group had carried out Monday's attack. He did not give a motive.

President Asif Ali Zardari has speculated that the motive behind the attack was to spark sectarian conflict.