At least 25 people have been killed and 50 others injured in an apparent suicide bomb blast at a Shiite Muslim mosque in the eastern Pakistani city of Sialkot.

Local reports say the explosion occurred during a Friday prayer sermon with some 1,000 participating at the mosque in the industrial border city, about 170 kilometers southeast of Islamabad.

No group or individual has claimed responsibility for the event yet.

Pakistan’s Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed condemned the blast, adding that it 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.

A number of attacks against Shiite mosques have taken place across the country in recent months. In May, 14 people were killed and 200 injured by a suicide bomber at a Shiite mosque in the southern port city of Karachi.

(CRI.com October 2, 2004)