Suicide blast kills 25 in Pak mosque

ISLAMABAD: A suicide bomber killed at least 25 people and wounded more than 50 in an attack in a Shi''ite Muslim mosque in the eastern Pakistani city of Sialkot.
The explosion occurred during Friday prayers when the mosque was packed with more than 1,000 worshippers.
"It was a suicide," Nisar Ahmed Saroya, district police officer for Sialkot, said. "It was a massive explosion which was heard several miles around."
Hundreds of worshippers were packed into the Mistri Abdullah Imambargah mosque when a huge explosion tore through the building, police spokesman Mohammad Ihsanullah said.
"The bomb left a nearly two feet deep crater and caused extensive damage to the premises," Ihsanullah said.
Witnesses said body parts and blood were spattered across the interior of the mosque, while ambulances rushed the seriously-injured to the city''s Allama Iqbal Town hospital.
Angry demonstrators clashed with police outside the mosque after the explosion. Police said bomb disposal officers were inspecting the site and that security had been tightened around the mosque area.
The attack came five days after Pakistani security forces killed a most wanted extremist, al-Qaeda operative Amjad Farooqi, in a shootout in the south of the country.