A SUICIDE bomber killed 24 people and injured more than 150 at a Shia Muslim shrine yesterday.

The bomber blew himself up in the Bari Imam shrine where thousands had gathered to pay homage to a 17th-century Sufi saint. Witnesses said that they saw the body of the bomber flying through the air after he detonated his explosives close to a podium where a sermon was being given on the last day of a five-day annual festival.

The shrine is near the official residence of Pakistan’s Prime Minister and diplomatic compounds in Islamabad.

Sufism is a mystical movement within Islam. Sunni and Shia Muslims revere Shah Abdul Latif Kazmi, Islamabad’s patron saint, but some conservative Sunni groups regard it as un-Islamic to celebrate him. Hundreds of people have been killed in sectarian attacks in the past year but this was the worst attack so far in the capital.

The bodies of most of the victims were so disfigured that they could not be identified.

Munazar Abbasi, who was slightly injured in the bombing, said: “We were listening to a sermon when there was a huge blast. Everything went black and I couldn’t hear anything.”

Hundreds of demonstrators blocked the roads after the attack and raised anti-government slogans.

President Musharraf expressed shock and grief at the killings and called for those responsible to be punished.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack.

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