At least two dead in Pakistan mosque blast: police

PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN: At least two people were killed Friday and several wounded in a suicide attack at a mosque in Pakistan's restive northwest as Muslims were marking the Eid al-Adha holiday, police said.

They said the bomber blew himself up in the mosque while the faithful were offering Eid prayers, detonating himself in the row behind former interior minister Aftab Sherpao, an ally of President Pervez Musharraf.

Sherpao's spokesman told AFP that the minister and his son escaped unhurt. "Two people are confirmed dead," said district police chief Feroz Shah. Provincial police chief Muhammad Sharif Virk said there had been 32 casualties in the attack but could not say how many of those had died.

The blast occurred in the Central Sherpao mosque in the town of Charsadda, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) southeast of the provincial capital of Peshawar.

"The bomber was among the people, who were offering Eid prayers. He was standing in the second row behind the former interior minister," Virk said.

It was the fourth suicide attack to hit Pakistan since last Friday, a day before Musharraf lifted a controversial state of emergency in the nuclear-armed Islamic nation.