Armed soldiers search a Shiite Muslim mosque in the eastern Pakistani city of Sialkot where a suicide bomb blast occured on Friday, killing at least 19 people and injured dozens of others. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

Policemen search for evidence at the bombing site of a Shiite Muslim mosque in the eastern Pakistani city of Sialkot, October 1. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

A Pakistani policeman holds an automatic weapon as he stands guard in front of a Shiite Muslim Mosque in Karachi. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

A Pakistani policeman stands on guard in in front of a Muslim Mosque in Karachi, October 1. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

    ISLAMABAD, Oct. 1 (Xinhuanet) -- An apparent suicide bomb blast at a Shiite Muslim mosque in the eastern Pakistani city of Sialkot on Friday killed at least 19 people and injured dozens of others, which brought about strong condemnation from the top leaders.

    The explosion occurred during Friday prayer sermon at the mosque in the industrial border city of Sialkot, about 170 km southeast of Islamabad.There were some 1,000 people at the mosque when the bomb exploded, one of a number of attacks in the recent months against Shiite mosques across the country. In May, over 20 people were killed and 200 injured by a suicide bomber at a Shiite mosque in the southern port city of Karachi.

    State-run Pakistan TV put the death toll of the Sialkot blast at 19 and it might increase. District mayor Mian Naeem Javed said dozens of injured people were taken to hospital in critical condition.

    Witnesses was quoted by private GEO TV as saying the blast created chaos and confusion in the mosque and the people had to flee in panic. Blood and parts of the human bodies were scattered all over in the mosque.

    Angry protesters went on the rampage after the blast. They burnt a police car and pelted police with bricks and stones. The blast came several days after the Pakistani security forces killed Amjad Hussain Farooqi, an al-Qaeda operational chief in Pakistan in the country.

    Information Minister and government spokesman Sheikh Rashid Ahmed termed the blast an "act of terrorism" and said it could be the reaction to the death of Farooqi and the government expected such an accident.

    Farooqi, 30, is believed to be behind the kidnapping and beheading in 2002 of US Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and two failed assassination attempts on President Pervez Musharraf that left 17 people dead in December last year.Rashid stressed that the Pakistani government would take stern action against terrorists and the war against terrorism would continue.

    Pakistani leaders later Friday strongly condemned the incident and vowed to root out the menace of terrorism from the country.In a statement, President Pervez Musharraf expressed shock and grief that terrorists hit worshipers when they were offering their prayers. He described the attack as dastardly "act of terrorism" and said it clearly showed that terrorists had no religion and they were just enemies of the mankind.

    Musharraf reaffirmed the commitment of the government to root out the menace of terrorism and ensure peace and security of the citizens. "There can not be any compromise over the nation's resolve to rid the society of extremism and sectarianism," said Musharraf. He directed the law enforcement agencies to investigate the incident thoroughly to unmask the perpetrators of the crime and asked the authorities to provide best possible treatment to the injured.

    Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said the killing of people at a place of worship was a highly condemnable act and that Islam was a religion of peace and abhorred terrorism.

    He directed the Punjab administration and law enforcement agencies to make all efforts to nab those responsible for the act so that they are given an exemplary punishment.

    Aziz said the country's security agencies had successfully hunted down those involved in such incidents in the past and vowed that terrorists responsible for the mosque attack will not be spared.

    Ruling Pakistan Muslim League (QA) President and former Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said in a press release that the perpetrators of "this worst act of terrorism" would be dealt with iron hand and the government would award exemplary punishment to them.

    Shujaat said that the killers of the worshippers were enemies of the whole humanity. "Everybody is angry over this gruesome incident and the nation is united against terrorism in thwarting nefarious designs of terrorists," he added. Enditem