30 killed in NW Pakistan mosque blast

Another 60 to 70 people were injured in the blast at the mosque in Hayagai Sharqi in Upper Dir of North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Many of the injured were in critical condition. Police have been dispatched towards the blast site. Witnesses were quoted as saying that a suicide bomber tried to enter the mosque but the people, suspicious of the man, stopped him and he blew himself up on the lawn of the mosque at Hayagai Sharqi, a small village in the mountain some 30 kilometers from Dir city. Local people shifted the injured to hospitals in their private cars and on foot as roads to the blast site are in poor condition and narrow for ambulances to reach. Hayagai Sharqi is stated to be peaceful but the army fighter planes bombed positions of suspected militants at Dug Darra, an area a few kilometers away. Two women were killed in the bombing. No group claimed responsibility for the blast. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani Friday strongly condemned the blast in the country's northwest; Kazinform cites Xinhua. See www.chinaview.cn for full version