Pakistan bomb 'contained 6kg-8kg of explosives'

Authorities have said at least 50 people were killed and more than 100 wounded when a suicide attacker detonated a bomb packed with ball bearings and nails amid hundreds of holiday worshippers at the home of Pakistan’s former interior minister today.

Witnesses said the dead included police officers guarding Mr Sherpao, who was praying in the mosque’s front row at the time of the attack but was not injured.

“We were saying prayers when this huge explosion occurred,” said Shaukat Ali, a 26-year-old survivor of the blast, whose white cloak and trousers were torn and spattered with blood. “It almost blew out our eardrums. Then it was it was like a scene from Doomsday.”

The bomber was praying in a row of worshippers when he detonated the explosive, provincial police chief Sharif Virk said. Hundreds of people were in or around the mosque, about 40 yards from Mr Sherpao’s house, witnesses said.

District mayor Farman Ali Khan said between 50 and 55 people were killed, and authorities were collecting information on their identities. Local police chief Feroz Shah said more than 100 were wounded.

The hospital in Peshawar was thrown into chaos as the injured arrived in pick-up trucks.

The injured were also taken to hospitals in Charsadda and Tangi. The bomb contained between 6kg-8kg of explosives and was filled with nails and ball bearings to maximise casualties, said the head of the bomb unit at the scene, who declined to give his name.

Shafiq Khan, a witness who went to the scene after the blast, said Mr Sherpao’s youngest son, Mustafa, was slightly wounded, while another son, former provincial assembly member Sikander Sherpao, was not hurt.

After the blast, Mr Sherpao’s house was protected by about a dozen armed police and paramilitary troops.

In a brief telephone interview, Mr Sherpao said he was unhurt. “Yes, I’m fine.”

Mr Sherpao was interior minister – Pakistan’s top civilian security official - in the administration recently dissolved ahead of January parliamentary elections. He is head of the Pakistan People’s Party-Sherpao, and is running as a candidate for parliament in next month’s elections.

In April, he was slightly wounded when a suicide bomber attacked a rally for his political party in the nearby town of Charsadda, killing at least 28 people.

Islamic militants have repeatedly targeted top figures in the government of President Pervez Musharraf, a key ally in the US-led war on terror.

Mr Musharraf himself narrowly escaped assassination in two bombings a few days apart in December 2003 in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, near Islamabad. At least 16 others died.