SIALKOT, Oct 1: Twenty-five people were killed and over 50 others wounded when a suspected suicide attacker detonated an explosive device inside a mosque here on Friday.
Violence erupted in the city after the incident, forcing the administration to call out the army.
More than 300 people were in the mosque, adjacent to Imambargah Mistri Abdullah on the Raja Road, when an unidentified youth carrying a briefcase entered the hall, official sources said.
"As soon as he got close to the faithful who were listening to the Juma sermon, the man opened his briefcase and then a huge explosion occurred," police quoted a witness as saying.
Sixteen people died on the spot, including a former deputy speaker of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, and nine others succumbed to injuries in hospitals, said Sialkot district nazim Mian Naeem Javaid and police sources. Some of the critically injured were later shifted to Gujranwala and Lahore.
There was a stampede in the mosque after the blast, which occurred at 1:25pm. It caused a two-foot-deep crater on the floor and left the mosque badly damaged. Windowpanes of some nearby buildings were also shattered.
"There was panic and there was blood and screams all around," said a wounded man. Tension ran high in the city after the blast as mourners, some of them armed, set a police van on fire and threw stones at police and private vehicles, leaving some personnel injured.
They forced major markets to close down and burnt old tyres on key roads, blocking the traffic. They also resorted to aerial firing at some places. Army was then called out to maintain law and order.
In the evening, protesters carrying bodies of several victims held a demonstration on the Sialkot Police Lines ground. They chanted slogans, demanding immediate arrest of the culprits behind the heinous act.
Twenty-one of the dead were identified. They were: former deputy speaker of AJK Legislative Assembly Shaukat Hussain Naqvi, Syed Idrees Ahmad Shehzada, Khadim Hussain, Ghulam Raza, Ikhlaq Hussain, Brig (retd) Muhammad Hanif Jafri, Riaz Hussain Jafri, Asad Abbas, Waqar Ali Jafri, Malik Faiz, Sibtul Hassan, Muhammad Ali, Syed Kara Abbas Kazmi, Tajammul Hussain, Zahirul Hasan Rizvi, Ghulam Raza, Bao Riaz, Riaz Matwalli, Riasat Ali, Faiz Hussain and a 7-year-old, Ali.
Twenty of the injured were stated to be in serious condition. The Sialkot district government declared emergency in all hospitals in the city. The injured were admitted to Allama Iqbal Memorial DHQ Hospital, Sardar Begum Hospital and a number of other hospitals in Sialkot, Daska, Gujranwala and Lahore.
Senior police officials were not sure it was a suicide attack. "It is a possibility, but has to be confirmed," they said. Contingents of police and the elite force had been called from neighbouring districts which were patrolling the city.
Witnesses told Dawn that there were as many as three bombers. They said one terrorist with a briefcase entered the mosque and soon there was a huge explosion. Then two others, who stayed outside the mosque, threw another briefcase near the entrance and fled.
Official sources said there was more than 12kg of explosive material in the second briefcase which was defused by the bomb disposal squad. The explosive device was locally made, they added.
