4th LD Writethru: 54 killed, 50 injured in south Pakistan's Shiite mosque

At least 54 people were killed and 50 others injured Friday when a suicide bomber ripped through a mosque of Shiite Muslims in Pakistan's south Shikarpur district, local media reported.

Quoting unknown hospital sources, Dunya TV said that a teenager suicide bomber blew up himself in the mosque where around 400 people were offering Friday prayers.

According to the Bomb Disposal Squad, at least 5 kilograms of explosives along ball bearings were used in the bomb and it was detonated with a remote-controlled device.

District Superintendent Police of Shikarpur, a district in the northern part of Sindh Province in southern Pakistan, said that the explosion took place at about 1:40 p.m. local time in Lakhi Dar area of the district.

Following the blast, roof of the mosque also collapsed trapping several people inside who were later shifted to hospital.

Police and rescue teams rushed to the site and shifted the bodies and injured to the district hospital in the city.

On the directives of Provincial Health Minister Jam Mehtab, severely injured people were shifted to hospitals in nearby Larkana and Sukkur districts for better medical treatment.

Inter-Services Public Relations, the mouthpiece of Pakistani army, said in a statement that the military dispatched four ambulances and several army doctors to Shikarpur for the treatment of the injured people.

The bomb attack took place at a time when the Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was chairing a meeting on the law and order situation in southern port city of Karachi, capital of southern Sindh Province.

Sharif has condemned the bomb attack and sought a report on it.

He has also directed the concerned departments to provide the best possible medical treatment to the injured people.

On the PM's directives, 40 critically injured people in the hospitals will be airlifted to Karachi, capital city of the Sindh province, on Friday night.

Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM), a representative group of Shiite Muslims in the country, announced three days mourning, describing the incident a failure of the government.

The MWM also held a sit-in in Karachi to protest against the massive sectarian killings. A large number of women and kids took part in the sit-in.

The protestors blocked a main highway in the city, disrupting the road traffic.

Local media reported that the banned outfit Jandullah, a splinter group of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the attack.

The spokesperson Jandullah, the militant group of Sunni Muslims, said that they targeted Shiites as they are their enemies. Endi