A suicide bomber killed at least 25 people in a mosque packed with worshippers and wounded more than 50 when he blew himself up during Friday prayers yesterday in the eastern Pakistani town of Sialkot, police said.
More than 1,000 people from Pakistan's Shia Muslim minority were crowded into the Zainabya mosque when the blast ripped through the building, police said.
"It was a suicide attack," said Nisar Ahmed Saroya, district police officer for Sialkot. "It was a massive explosion which was heard several miles around.
Bodies were blown to pieces by the blast, police said. "The floor of the mosque is strewn with blood and human flesh," Mr Saroya said, adding that the death toll had risen to 25. More than 50 people were wounded in the town 170 km south-east of the capital, Islamabad, he said.
The explosion blew a crater more than 75 cm deep and 90 cm wide, police said. Police sources said eight suspects had been rounded up.
The Information Minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, said the attack might be retaliation for the killing last Sunday of the most wanted Pakistani militant, Amjad Hussain Farooqi.
Seen as the main link between Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda and local militant groups, Farooqi was a key suspect in two assassination attempts on President Pervez Musharraf last December.
"It could be a possible reaction to that killing," the minister said. "It is an act of terrorism aimed at destabilising the country."