The crater that was formed after the suicide bombing in a Sialkot mosque. (Reuters)

Islamabad, Oct. 1: A suicide bomber killed 25 people in a mosque packed with worshippers and wounded more than 50 when he blew himself up during Friday prayers in the eastern Pakistani town of Sialkot, police said.

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf condemned the attack as dastardly and said it showed that terrorists had no religion and are enemies of mankind. He renewed his commitment to root them out.

More than 1000 Shia worshippers were offering prayers in the Zainabya mosque when the bomber entered the premises with a briefcase and blew himself up.

Locals fear the death toll could be as high as 40. Body parts were scattered everywhere inside the main hall and the compound of the mosque after the explosion.

This was the fourth attack on Shias since March this year when more than fifty worshippers were killed when gunmen fired on a Muharram procession in the southwestern city of Quetta.In May, suicide bombers killed 100 worshippers during prayers in two different incidents.

District police official Nisar Ahmed Sarviya said rescue workers and police had recovered 15 bodies soon after the explosion and are still trying to piece together the body parts scattered in the area.

?The floor of the mosque is strewn with blood and human flesh,? Sarviya said. More than 50 people were wounded, he said in the town 170 km southeast of Islamabad.

The explosion blew a crater more than 75 cm deep and 90 cm wide, police said.

They said eight suspects had been rounded up and the army and police had cordoned off the mosque in a busy neighbourhood.

The situation in Sialkot remained tense after the bombing. An angry mob reportedly clashed with the police and burnt a police vehicle near the site of the explosion.

Pakistan?s private Geo TV quoted senior police officials as saying that the bomb disposal squad also recovered a bomb from the mosque weighing 9 kg and defused it.

Information minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed sad the attack might be retaliation for the killing last Sunday of Pakistan?s most wanted militant, Amjad Hussain Farooqi.

Seen as the main link between Osama bin Laden?s al Qaida and local militant groups, Farooqi was a key suspect in two assassination attempts on Musharraf last December.