The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Peshawar

A suicide bomber blew himself up Tuesday at a hospital in a northwestern Pakistani town that has been plagued by sectarian violence, killing at least 23 people, police said.

The explosion happened as Shiite Muslims gathered to protest over the death of a man in a suspected sectarian attack in the troubled town of Dera Ismail Khan, said provincial police chief Malik Naveed Khan.

"There are 23 confirmed dead and up to 20 wounded. We have found the legs of the suspected suicide bomber," Khan told private Geo television, adding that tensions were high in the area after the blast.

Provincial police spokesman Riaz Ahmed said the dead included civilians from the crowd of Shiites and policemen who went to the hospital to provide security.

"A Shiite salesman was fatally wounded in an attack at a grocery store and was brought to the city's district hospital, when there was a blast in the emergency ward," Ahmed told AFP.

Another police official speaking on condition of anonymity said the incident could be linked to sectarian violence.