A bomb killed 25 people in northwest Pakistan today, while in the capital opposition politicians walked out of parliament, forcing the house to postpone a debate on weekend violence in Karachi.
No one claimed responsibility for the suspected suicide blast in the lobby of a hotel popular with Afghans in Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier Province, where militants opposed to government support for the United States have launched attacks.
There was no indication the blast was linked to weekend violence between pro-government and opposition activists in the southern city of Karachi which killed nearly 40 people.
The site of today's bombing in Peshawar, Pakistan. Image: AP.
"It is terrorism but who did this or who is behind it, it is premature to comment," said Syed Kamal Shah, federal interior secretary.
The attack is bound to add to a sense of crisis in Pakistan, where the worst political street violence in years erupted in Karachi on Saturday when the country's suspended top judge tried to meet supporters in the city.
Government attempts to remove Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry over unspecified accusations of misconduct, levelled on March 9th, have outraged the judiciary and the opposition and snowballed into a campaign against President Pervez Musharraf.
The campaign is the most serious challenge to the authority of General Musharraf, who is an important US ally, since he seized power in 1999.
The opposition blames Gen Musharraf and the pro-government Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which runs Karachi, for the weekend violence there when rivals with automatic weapons battled for hours on the city's streets.
About 150 people were wounded in the clashes between pro-government activists, who opposed the visit by suspended Mr Chaudhry, and opposition supporters backing him in his confrontation with the government.
Gen Musharraf blamed Chaudhry for the violence, saying he had ignored appeals not to visit the volatile city.
Yesterday, a nationwide opposition protest strike against the violence in Karachi virtually shut it and other major cities down.