Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Tuesday thanked the country's Taliban militants for not staging attacks during this year's Shi'ite ritual of Ashura.

Speaking to reporters in the capital, Islamabad, Malik said he had appealed to the Taliban for peace during the Shi'ite observance and wanted to thank them for heeding his appeal.

But while the Ashura observance passed peacefully in Pakistan, two bombings in neighboring Afghanistan — one in Kabul and one in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, killed at least 59 Shi'ite pilgrims Tuesday.

The Pakistan-based insurgent group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al-Alami claimed responsibility for the Kabul attack, which killed 55 people. The Sunni extremist group is an offshoot of the bigger Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which is affiliated with al-Qaida and is responsible for a number of attacks against Shi'ites in Pakistan.