More than 30 people were killed in a suspected suicide bombing at a northwest Pakistan mosque, where a former interior minister was offering Muslim Eid festival prayers with worshippers, police said.

Intelligence officials said as many as 50 people may have died but this could not be immediately confirmed by police.

Dozens of people were wounded in the blast. Body parts and shoes were scattered around the mosque floor, witnesses said.

Aftab Ahmed Sherpao, who was interior minister in President
Pervez Musharraf's recently dissolved government, was at the mosque in his home village at the time of the attack but it was unclear if he was the target. He said he escaped unharmed his son was injured.

The suspected bomber, sitting in a middle row among the worshippers, detonated his bomb as prayers ended and people gathered around the politician to greet him, a police official who asked not to be named, said.