ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistani security agencies are trying to identify a charred body believed to be that of the bomber who blew himself up in a crowded Shiite Muslim mosque and killed 30 people, police said.
"We have recovered a badly mutilated and charred body of a man, we suspect he was the man who detonated the bomb inside the mosque," senior police officer Ishtiaq Hussain Shah told AFP.
"He was a young man, about 25 years of age," Shah said.
"So far no one has come to claim the body and witnesses believe he was the man who had come to the mosque with a briefcase which might have carried the explosive device," the police officer said.
"Police and other security agencies are trying to identify the body."
The bomb went off during Friday noon prayers in the city of Sialkot when hundreds of worshippers from the minority Shiite sect had packed the mosque.
The blast killed at least 30 people and dozens were injured, 12 of them seriously.
Thousands of people attended special prayers for the victims on Sunday. Speakers -- including the Imam of the mosque, Faiz Ali Kirpalvi, who was himself injured -- condemned the attack and demanded the immediate arrest of the attackers.
Sialkot was plunged into mourning after the bombing, termed by the authorities an act of terrorism. Shops and markets near the Shiite Zainabia Mosque remained closed after community leaders called for a two-day shutdown.
Tensions remained high on Sunday and groups of people continued to gather outside the scene of the bombing but no incidents were reported.
Rioting erupted after funeral prayers on Saturday. Hundreds of angry youths carrying bamboo sticks attacked a police station, public buildings and state-run banks and torched about a dozen vehicles.
"Police and paramilitary troops are patrolling the city but the situation is under control," said city mayor Javed Naeem.
The administration has set up peace committees and Shiite leaders have appealed to people not to indulge in violence, he said.
Local Shiite leader Pervez Mehndi said the authorities Sunday released about a dozen Shiite youths who were detained for rioting on Saturday.
Provincial Law Minister Muhammad Bisharat Raja announced a 10 million rupee (170,000 dollar) reward for information about the culprits.
The attack came five days after Pakistani security forces killed the country's most wanted Sunni Muslim extremist, Al-Qaeda operative Amjad Farooqi, in a shootout in the south of the country.
Farooqi, the alleged mastermind of several attempts to kill President Pervez Musharraf, was an activist in the Harkatul Jihad-e-Islam, a Sunni Muslim group blamed for the 2002 murder of US reporter Daniel Pearl.
Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said Saturday the blast could be a reaction to the killing of Amjad Farooqi, who he said had been involved in sectarian crimes.
Fanatics from Pakistan's Sunni Muslim majority and Shiite minority have been killing each other since the 1980s. The conflict has so far cost more than 4,000 lives.