At least 55 people were killed and some 100 injured when a bomb exploded in a religious gathering in the Pakistani port city of Karachi on Tuesday evening, according to Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao.

Sherpao confirmed the death of the head of Islamic group TehrikAwam Ahli-Sunnat Haji Hanif Bilo in the blast. Several other religious leaders were also injured.

The bomb was planted under the stage at the Nishtar park and exploded when the people were offering evening prayers at 6:45 PM, TV channels reported.

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz condemned what they described the deadly terrorist bomb attack and asked the provincial government of Sindh to immediately arrest those behind the blast.

They also expressed condolences with the bereaved families.

Many injured were taken to hospitals and emergency was declared there. Thousands of people rushed to hospitals to give blood to the injured. Private hospitals were also asked to accommodate the injured as three major government hospitals were packed with the dead and injured.

Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said that there was no intelligence information about the attack. He said that he was not sure if it was a suicide attack adding that investigation was going on to determine how the blast was carried out.

A senior leader of Jamaat Ahli Sunnat Shah Turab ul Haq Qadri who led evening prayers said that when was leading the prayers the bomb exploded, leading to chaos and the people started running.

He said that mobile phones were jammed soon after the blast and that was why the local officials and police could not be informed in time. He said that the angry people threw stones at the police because they came to the venue late.

The angry people took to the streets in the city and set on fire a vehicle of fire fighter, two petrol stations and several motor cycles of police.

The police had to fire in the air to disperse the people to take the injured people to hospitals.
 
Rauf Siddiqi, Interior Minister of the Sindh province, where Karachi is the capital, said that the security forces had checked the stage before it was handed over to the organizers.

Siddiqi claimed that the police and paramilitary forces faced difficulties to reach the site of the blast as the angry people were not allowing them.

Former Prime Ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, president of Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal Qazi Hussain Ahmed and leader of Mutahida Qaumi Movement Altaf Hussain strongly condemned the blast.

(Xinhua News Agency April 12, 2006)