Islamabad: A man with explosives strapped around his body and standing in the front row during Friday prayers in a mosque blew himself up, killing at least 14 Shia worshippers, including the Imam, and injuring over 100 this afternoon (May 7, 2004) in Pakistan's port city of Karachi.

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The suicide bombing took place at around 1350 hours IST in the Shia mosque inside Government-run Sindh Madrassatul Islam religious school, established by the country's founding father Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

President Pervez Musharraf condemned the blast as a "heinous act of terrorism" and ordered an immediate probe into the attack. Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali also condemned the bombing.

While 13 dead were brought to Karachi Civil Hospital, another body was taken to the Jinnah Hospital. Police said that about 50 people were being treated for serious burn injuries while rest were discharged after treatment of minor injuries.

The blast created mayhem in the mosque and virtually ripped open its 40 ft high ceiling. Television channels showed bits of flesh and pools of blood all around as rescuers shifted the wounded in ambulances to hospital.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Soon after the blast, Shia mourners attacked the police vehicles with stones and attempted to set them on fire.

Another bomb exploded in the premises of High Court building in Quetta, the provincial headquarters of Pakistan's South-western Baluchistan, injuring a policeman and a bystander.