PAKISTAN:More than 50 people were killed yesterday when a suicide attacker detonated a bomb at a crowded mosque near the home of Pakistan's former interior minister on one of Islam's major holidays.
The bomber blew himself up as worshippers held prayers on the holy day of Eid al-Adha at the mosque inside Aftab Khan Sherpao's compound in Sherpao, a village 20 miles from Peshawar, in Pakistan's North-West Frontier province. The holiday marks the end of the annual hajj pilgrimage in Mecca.
The bomber had apparently sat in the front row of worshippers and had begun to pray before exploding the device. "We were saying prayers when this huge explosion occurred," Shaukat Ali (26), a survivor of the blast, reported. "It almost blew out our eardrums. Then it was like a scene from doomsday."
Television pictures showed blood-stained clothes, shoes and skull caps strewn across the mosque's marble courtyard.
Officials said that 1,200 people had gathered to celebrate the festival.
Syed Kamal Shah, the federal interior secretary, felt Mr Sherpao was the target. "There are so many mosques in that area. Why did the bomber select that mosque for the attack?" he said.
Witnesses said the dead included police officers guarding the former minister, who was praying in the mosque at the time of the attack. Local police chief Feroz Shah said: "According to my reports so far, 55 are dead but we are checking this figure, and over 100 are wounded."
Police said they had found ballbearings aimed at causing maximum damage.
Suspicion will likely focus on the "Pakistani Taliban" or al-Qaeda militants who are believed to have set up bases in the region. Police raided nearby madrasas immediately after the attack, arresting students.
Mr Sherpao, seen as close to President Pervez Musharraf, survived the attack and toured hospitals to comfort the injured. "Yes, I'm fine," he told the Associated Press in a brief telephone interview. One of his sons was taken to hospital.
The former minister, once a supporter of Benazir Bhutto, head of the opposition Pakistan People's party, is contesting next month's parliamentary elections for his own party.
In office, he took a strong anti-militant line, a conviction strengthened after a suicide attack killed 29 people at a rally in his constituency this year.
Yesterday's bomb is the most lethal attack in Pakistan since October, when two suicide bombers killed 140 people during a parade celebrating Benazir Bhutto's return to Pakistan after eight years of exile.
Mr Musharraf ended the country's state of emergency last weekend, saying there had been a "considerable improvement" in the security situation.
President Hamid Karzai of neighbouring Afghanistan, who is due to visit Pakistan soon, described the bombing as entirely unIslamic.
"This once again illustrates that terrorism is a common threat to both Afghanistan and to Pakistan and not just the two nations, but also a threat to humanity," Mr Karzai said in a statement.