A bomb exploded at a Muslim shrine on the eastern outskirts of Islamabad Friday, killing at least 17 and injuring dozens of others.
"The death toll rises to 17 in blast near Bari Imam," Minister of Information and Broadcasting Sheikh Rashid Ahmad said without giving further details.
Rashid termed the attack as plot of forces who were against Islam and Pakistan.
The blast happened at around 11:20 AM (06:20 GMT) at the Bari Imam shrine when thousands of Muslims gathered at the shrine for an annual religious celebration.
The blast was suspected to be a suicide attack, no official confirmation so far is available.
A witness said he saw a man dressed in police uniform threw a bomb after he entered the gathering. The bomber was also killed in the blast and witnesses said that body of the attacker was mutilated and the police have recovered his mutilated head.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
After the explosion, about 40 ambulances from Pakistan Red Crescent Society, the Edhi Foundation and some other rescue organizations rushed to the site and shifted at least 70 injured people to hospitals in the capital for medical treatment.
Federal Government Services Hospital, Poly Clinic received 19 wounded persons respectively and PIMs Hospital had another 32.
A witness named Adeer Haidry from a leading student organization of Shiite Muslims told Xinhua that the blast killed 15 to 20 people and injured about 70 others. "I strongly condemn such a shameful act," he said.
However, Haji Tariq Mehmood, a relationship officer of non-government rescue organization EDHI, said at least 50 people lost their lives in the blast and 200 others injured.
Pakistan's major port city Karachi put high security alert on shrines and some religious sites following the explosion in Islamabad.
Friday's blast at the shrine came 10 days after 58 religious scholars from different schools of Islam in Pakistan issued a decree to forbid the suicide attacks at religious sites throughout the country.
(Xinhua News Agency May 28, 2005)
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