Residents are seen next to the rubble of a destroyed mosque after a blast. Seventeen people were injured after a grenade attack on the the Kichi Masjid, officials said. -AP Photo

PESHAWAR At least 17 people were wounded after unknown attackers threw a hand grenade at the Kichi Masjid in the Faqir Abdullah area of Dera Ismail Khan Wednesday, DawnNews reports.

Two of the injured are in critical condition, according to hospital sources. Local residents were offering their night prayers when the attack took place.

'Seventeen people were injured after a grenade attack on the mosque,' local police official Diljan Khan told AFP.

'The injured have been shifted to the hospital and police have started an investigation,' Khan said, adding that the attack on the Sunni mosque appeared to be linked to sectarian violence.

Two other blasts are reported to have taken place, one near a bus stand and the other on Tank Road. 

Dera Ismail Khan, which borders the country's restive tribal region, is a flashpoint for violence between militants from minority Shiite and majority Sunni communities.

Shiites account for some 20 per cent of Pakistan's mostly Sunni Muslim population of 160 million.

Although the two groups usually coexist peacefully, more than 4,000 people have died in outbreaks of sectarian violence since the late 1980s.