BHAKKAR At least 22 people were killed and 62 others injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up in the outhouse of PML-N leader Rashid Akbar Niwani here on Monday.

The blast took place at 0445pm when Mr Niwani was meeting people of his constituency, listening to their problems.

Body parts, shoes and shredded clothes were scattered all over the courtyard. Some of the bodies were beyond recognition.

The seriously wounded were taken to the Nishtar Hospital in Multan.

Witnesses said about 150 people were in the outhouse, most of them to collect Benazir income support cards or seek the MNAs favour to get police jobs.

Mr Niwani was taken to the Bhakkar DHQ hospital where he was operated upon for a fractured arm. He also suffered injuries in legs.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Niwani said he was talking to the people when all of a sudden there was a bang and some people fell over him.

He said he was about six feet away from the place where the suicide bomber had blown himself up. He said he remained safe because four people were in front of him. When I regained sense I saw bodies and injured people everywhere.

He said his dera was normally visited by about 2,500 people everyday but the gathering on Monday was unusually large.

As the news of the blast spread in the town, all shopping centres and markets were closed and shopkeepers rushed to their homes. Some angry youths burnt tyres and raised slogans against the government.

A security guard told Dawn that as Mr Niwani arrived in his jeep more than a dozen people made their way into the outhouse without any body search. He believed that the bomber was among them.

District Nazim Hameed Akbar Niwani, elder brother of the MNA, said that all members of the family were safe. He announced that all schools and colleges in the district would remain closed on Tuesday as a mark of protest.

Some of the dead were identified as Haji Habibullah, Khan Niazi, Madah Husain, Abdur Rashid, Haji Aashiq, Ali Raza, Aashiq Husain, Allah Nawaz, Ejaz Husain, Abdur Rehman, Manzoor Husain, Malik Haider (head constable), Muzammil Abas, Mulazim Hussain, Malik Ghulam Mohammad, Jehangir Hussain, Ghulam Hussain, Azmat Husain and Abid Ali.

Police and other law-enforcement personnel rushed to the place and cordoned off the area. The towns exit and entry points were sealed.

Only five doctors were there in the DHQ hospital to look after the injured people and medical facilities were inadequate. A large number of people rushed to the hospital to donate blood.

Although the menace of suicide bombing has roots in the ongoing war on terror, some local observers are of the opinion that it was a sectarian attack.

According to them, sectarian violence in Bhakkar and D.I. Khan in the NWFP are linked. D.I. Khan is only 25km from Bhakkar. Talking to a TV channel, Mr Niwani did not rule out involvement of some local network in the blast.

INVESTIGATIONS

Police were pursuing DNA tests to identify the suicide bomber, senior police official Mahar Khadim Hussain said Tuesday.

It was an act of terrorism, and officers have collected remains of the suicide bomber for DNA test, Hussain told The Associated Press.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani both decried the attack in statements late Monday. Such heinous incidents cannot deter the governments resolve to fight against terrorism, Pakistan Television quoted Zardari as saying.

The blast came just four days after a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the house of Awami National Party chief Asfandyar Wali Khan in Walibagh, Charsadda, killing five people.